Electronic device, communication method and storage medium

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure relates to electronic device, communication method and storage medium in a wireless communication system. There is provided an electronic device on user device side, comprising a processing circuitry configured to: receive, from a control device, configuration on an association between a first reference signal and a second reference signal; receive, from the control device, an indication for the first reference signal; and in response to the indication for the first reference signal, implement reception of a third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for the second reference signal based on the association between the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is based on PCT filing PCT/CN2019/120902, filedNov. 26, 2019, which claims priority of Chinese Patent Application No.201811432397.6 filed on Nov. 28, 2018, the entirety of each areincorporated here by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to electronic device, communicationmethod, and storage medium, in particular, to electronic device,communication method, and storage medium for beam indication in awireless communication system.

BACKGROUND

With the advent of the 5G era, the number of users and the raterequirement per user have increased significantly, and the need forfurther expansion of the spatial domain has become more urgent.Large-scale antenna technology has become one of the key technologies of5G communication because of its huge potential in improving efficiencyof system spectrum and rate experienced by user.

In a wireless communication system using the large-scale antennatechnology, base station and user equipment (UE) have multiple antennas,and antennas of the base station and antennas of the UE can form aspatial beam with narrow directivity through beamforming to provide astronger power coverage in a specific direction, so as to combat thelarge path loss that exists in the high-frequency channel. Many beamswith different transmitting directions are used to achieve a largercoverage area. In order to improve reception quality of the beam signal,the base station and the UE need to select a beam that matches thechannel direction as much as possible, that is, on the transmittingside, the transmitting beam is aligned with Angle of Departure (AOD) ofthe channel, and on the receiving side, the receiving beam is alignedwith Angle of Arrival (AOA) of the channel.

Typically, the base station and the UE can determine the transmittingbeam and the receiving beam to be used by means of beam training. Beamtraining may generally include steps such as beam measurement, beamreporting, and beam indication. More specifically, the base station maytransmit a set of beams with mutually different directions, and the UEmeasures the quality of each received beam and reports the measurementsto the base station, so that the base station can select the optimalbeam among them. The base station may indicate the selected optimal beamto the UE with a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state, forexample.

However, there may be cases where there is no suitable TCI state forperforming the beam indication. For example, in the first standard R15of 5G New Radio (5G NR), the base station can configure at most 64 TCIstates for the UE, but these TCI states may not correspond to theselected optimal beam, and thus cannot be used to indicate the optimalbeam. In addition, reconfiguring the TCI states for the UE will consumea lot of resources.

Therefore, there is a need for improving the beam indication mechanismin order to increase the efficiency of beam indication.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Aspects are provided by the present disclosure to satisfy theabove-mentioned need.

A brief overview regarding the present disclosure is given below toprovide a basic understanding on some aspects of the present disclosure.However, it will be appreciated that the overview is not an exhaustivedescription of the present disclosure. It is not intended to specify keyportions or important portions of the present disclosure, nor to limitthe scope of the present disclosure. It aims at merely describing someconcepts about the present disclosure in a simplified form and serves asa preorder of a more detailed description to be given later.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on user device side, comprising a processing circuitryconfigured to: receive, from a control device, configuration on anassociation between a first reference signal and a second referencesignal; receive, from the control device, an indication for the firstreference signal; and in response to the indication for the firstreference signal, implement reception of a third reference signal byusing spatial reception parameters for the second reference signal basedon the association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on control device side, comprising a processingcircuitry configured to: send, to a user device, configuration on anassociation between a first reference signal and a second referencesignal; and send, to the user device, an indication for the firstreference signal; wherein in response to the indication for the firstreference signal, the user device implements reception of a thirdreference signal by using spatial reception parameters for the secondreference signal based on the association between the first referencesignal and the second reference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on user device side, comprising: a processingcircuitry configured to: receive, from a control device, configurationon an association between a first reference signal and a secondreference signal; receive, from the control device, an indication forthe first reference signal; and in response to the indication for thefirst reference signal, implement transmission of a third referencesignal by using spatial reception parameters or spatial transmissionparameters for the second reference signal based on the associationbetween the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on control device side, comprising a processingcircuitry configured to: send, to a user device, configuration on anassociation between a first reference signal and a second referencesignal; and send, to the user device, an indication for the firstreference signal; wherein in response to the indication for the firstreference signal, the user device implements transmission of a thirdreference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on user device side, comprising a processing circuitryconfigured to: receive, from a control device, activation informationfor a first set of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states,wherein each of the first set of TCI states is respectively associatedwith a corresponding one of a second set of TCI states; receive, fromthe control device, indication information for a specific TCI state inthe first set of TCI states and association enabling information; and ina case where the association enabling information indicates enablementof association, determine spatial reception parameters based on an TCIstate in the second set of TCI states associated with the specific TCIstate.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anelectronic device on control device side, comprising a processingcircuitry configured to: send, to a user device, activation informationfor a first set of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states,wherein each of the first set of TCI states is respectively associatedwith a corresponding one of a second set TCI states; and send, to theuser device, indication information for a specific TCI state in thefirst set of TCI states and association enabling information, wherein ina case where the association enabling information indicates enablementof association, a TCI state in the second set of TCI states associatedwith the specific TCI state is used by the user device to determinespatial reception parameters.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: receiving, from a control device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; receiving, from the control device, anindication for the first reference signal; and in response to theindication for the first reference signal, implementing reception of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal based on the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: sending, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and sending, to the user device, an indicationfor the first reference signal; wherein in response to the indicationfor the first reference signal, the user device implements reception ofa third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal based on the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: receiving, from a control device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; receiving, from the control device, anindication for the first reference signal; and in response to theindication for the first reference signal, implementing transmission ofa third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters orspatial transmission parameters for the second reference signal based onthe association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: sending, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and sending, to the user device, an indicationfor the first reference signal; wherein in response to the indicationfor the first reference signal, the user device implements transmissionof a third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters orspatial transmission parameters for the second reference signal based onthe association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: receiving, from a control device,activation information for a first set of transmission configurationindication (TCI) states, wherein each of the first set of TCI states isrespectively associated with a corresponding one of a second set of TCIstates; receiving, from the control device, indication information for aspecific TCI state in the first set of TCI states and associationenabling information; and in a case where the association enablinginformation indicates enablement of association, determining spatialreception parameters based on an TCI state in the second set of TCIstates associated with the specific TCI state.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided acommunication method, comprising: sending, to a user device, activationinformation for a first set of transmission configuration indication(TCI) states, wherein each of the first set of TCI states isrespectively associated with a corresponding one of a second set TCIstates; and sending, to the user device, indication information for aspecific TCI state in the first set of TCI states and associationenabling information, wherein in a case where the association enablinginformation indicates enablement of association, a TCI state in thesecond set of TCI states associated with the specific TCI state is usedby the user device to determine spatial reception parameters.

According to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided anon-transitory computer readable storage medium storing executableinstructions which, when executed, perform any of the abovecommunication methods.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the present disclosure may be achieved byreferring to a detailed description given hereinafter in connection withaccompanying figures, wherein the same or similar reference signs areused to indicate the same or similar components throughout the figures.The figures are included in the specification and form a part of thespecification along with the following detailed descriptions, forfurther illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and forexplaining the theory and advantages of the present disclosure. Wherein,

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing the architecture of the NRcommunication system;

FIGS. 2A and 2B are NR radio protocol architecture in the user plane andin control plane, respectively;

FIG. 3A shows an example of an antenna array arranged in a matrix;

FIG. 3B illustrates transceiver units (TXRUs) and the mapping betweenthe TXRUs and antenna ports;

FIG. 4 schematically shows beams usable by the base station and the UE;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating configuration of the TCIstate;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the existing beam indicationusing the TCI states;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam indication according tothe first embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating QCL relationships betweenvarious reference signals;

FIG. 9 is a simplified diagram of Example 1 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the first embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating beam ranges of SSB andCSI-RS;

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram of Example 2 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the first embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of Example 3 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the first embodiment;

FIG. 13 is a simplified diagram of Example 4 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the first embodiment;

FIG. 14 illustrates MAC CE used in the beam indication for PDCCH;

FIG. 15A illustrates MAC CE used in the beam indication for PDSCH;

FIG. 15B illustrates an improved DCI used in the beam indication forPDSCH;

FIGS. 16A and 16B illustrate an electronic device on UE side and acommunication method thereof according to the first embodiment;

FIGS. 17A and 17B illustrate an electronic device on base station sideand a communication method thereof according to the first embodiment;

FIG. 18A illustrates configuration of PUCCH spatial relation informationfor scheduling PUCCH;

FIG. 18B illustrates configuration of SRS spatial relation informationfor scheduling SRS;

FIGS. 19A and 19B are schematic diagrams illustrating beam indicationaccording to the second embodiment;

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram illustrating extended QCL relationshipsbetween various reference signals;

FIG. 21 is a simplified diagram of Example 1 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the second embodiment;

FIG. 22 is a simplified diagram of Example 2 of indirect beam indicationaccording to the second embodiment;

FIGS. 23A and 23B illustrate an electronic device on UE side and acommunication method thereof according to the second embodiment;

FIGS. 24A and 24B illustrate an electronic device on base station sideand a communication method thereof according to the second embodiment;

FIGS. 25A and 25B illustrate a situation where the TCI states need to bereactivated or reconfigured due to UE movement;

FIGS. 26A and 26B illustrate examples of association of TCI statesaccording to the third embodiment;

FIGS. 27A and 27B illustrate an electronic device on UE side and acommunication method thereof according to the third embodiment;

FIGS. 28A and 28B illustrate an electronic device on base station sideand a communication method thereof according to the third embodiment;

FIG. 29 illustrates a first example of schematic configuration of thebase station according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 30 illustrates a second example of schematic configuration of thebase station according to the present disclosure;

FIG. 31 illustrates an example of schematic configuration of a smartphone according to the present disclosure; and

FIG. 32 illustrates an example of schematic configuration of anautomobile navigation device according to the present disclosure.

Further features of the present invention will become apparent from thefollowing description of exemplary embodiments with reference to theattached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Various illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure will bedescribed hereinafter with reference to the drawings. For purpose ofclarity and simplicity, not all features are described in thespecification. Note that, however, many settings specific to theimplementations can be made in practicing the embodiments of the presentdisclosure according to specific requirements, so as to achieve specificgoals of the developers, for example, to comply with the limitationsrelated to apparatus and service, and these limitations may vary fromimplementations. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the developingwork will be a routine task, despite complex and tedious, for thoseskilled in the art who benefit from the present disclosure.

In addition, it should be noted that the figures illustrate only stepsof a process and/or components of a device that are closely related tothe technical solutions according to the present disclosure, and omitother details that are in little relation to the invention. Thefollowing description of illustrative embodiments are merely explanatoryand should not be regarded as any limit to the scope of the presentdisclosure and the applications thereof.

For convenient explanation of the technical solutions of the presentdisclosure, various aspects of the present disclosure will be describedbelow in the context of 5G NR. However, it should be noted that this isnot a limitation on the scope of application of the present disclosure.One or more aspects of the present disclosure can also be applied towireless communication systems that have been commonly used, such as 4GLTE/LTE-A, or various wireless communication systems to be developed infuture. The architecture, entities, functions, processes and the like asdescribed in the following description are not limited to those in theNR communication system, but can be found in other communicationstandards.

OVERVIEW

FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram showing the architecture of 5G NRcommunication system. As shown in FIG. 1 , on the network side, theradio access network (NG-RAN) nodes of the NR communication systeminclude gNB and ng-eNB, wherein gNB is a newly defined node in the 5G NRcommunication standard, and it is connected to 5G core network (5GC) viaa NG interface, and provides the NR user plane and control planeprotocols terminating with terminal equipment (also referred to as “userequipment”, hereinafter referred to as “UE”); ng-eNB is a node definedto be compatible with the 4G LTE communication system, and it can beupgradation of evolved Node B (eNB) of the LTE radio access network,connects a device to the 5G core network via the NG interface, andprovides user plane and control plane protocols of an evolved universalterrestrial radio access (E-UTRA) terminating with the UE. Hereinafter.The gNB and ng-eNB are collectively referred to as “base station”.

However, it should be noted that the term “base station” used in thepresent disclosure is not limited to the above two types of nodes, butserves as an example of a control device on the network side, and hasthe full breadth of its usual meaning. For example, in addition to thegNB and ng-eNB specified in the 5G communication standard, depending onthe scenario in which the technical solution of the present disclosureis applied, the “base station” may also be, for example, an eNB in theLTE communication system, a remote radio head, a wireless access point,a drone control tower, a control node in an automated factory, or acommunication device that performs similar functions. Applicationexamples of the base station will be described in detail in thefollowing chapter.

In addition, in the present disclosure, the term “UE” has the fullbreadth of its usual meaning, including various terminal devices orin-vehicle devices that communicate with the base station. As anexample, the UE may be a terminal device such as a mobile phone, alaptop computer, a tablet computer, an in-vehicle communication device,a drone, a sensor and an actuator in an automated factory, or an elementthereof. Application examples of the UE will be described in detail inthe following chapter.

Next, the NR radio protocol architecture for the base station and UE inFIG. 1 will be introduced with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B. FIG. 2Ashows the radio protocol stack for the user plane of UE and gNB, andFIG. 2B shows the radio protocol stack for the control plane of UE andgNB. The radio protocol stack can include the following three layers:Layer 1, Layer 2, and Layer 3.

Layer 1 (L1) is the lowest layer and implements various physical-layersignal processing to provide a transparent transmission function ofsignals. The L1 layer will be referred to herein as physical layer(PHY).

The various signal processing functions of the L1 layer (i.e., thephysical layer) implemented on the base station side will be introducedbriefly. These signal processing functions include coding andinterleaving to facilitate forward error correction (FEC) at the UE andmapping to signal constellations based on various modulation schemes(for example, Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK), Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK), M-Phase Shift Keying (M-PSK), M-Quadrature AmplitudeModulation (M-QAM)). Subsequently, the coded and modulated symbols aresplit into parallel streams. Each stream is then used with referencesignals to generate a physical channel that carries a stream oftime-domain symbols. The stream of symbols is spatially pre-coded togenerate multiple spatial streams. Channel estimation can be used todetermine coding and modulation schemes and for spatial processing. Thechannel estimation may be derived from the reference signal transmittedby the UE and/or channel condition feedback. Each spatial stream is thenprovided to a different antenna via a separate transmitter. Eachtransmitter modulates the RF carrier with its own spatial stream fortransmission.

At the UE, each receiver receives the signal with its respectiveantenna. Each receiver recovers the information modulated on the radiofrequency (RF) carrier and provides this information to various signalprocessing functions of the L1 layer. Spatial processing is performed onthe information at the L1 layer to recover any spatial stream destinedfor the UE. If there are multiple spatial streams destined for the UE,they can be combined into a single symbol stream. This symbol stream isthen converted from the time domain to the frequency domain. Bydetermining the signal constellation points which are the most likely tobe transmitted by the base station, each of the symbols and thereference signal are recovered and demodulated. These soft decisions canbe based on the channel estimation. These soft decisions are thendecoded and de-interleaved to recover the data and control signalsoriginally transmitted by the base station on the physical channel.These data and control signals are then provided to higher-levelprocessing.

Layer 2 (L2 layer) is above the physical layer and is responsible forthe link between the UE and the base station above the physical layer.In the user plane, the L2 layer includes a medium access control (MAC)sublayer, a radio link control (RLC) sublayer, a packet data convergenceprotocol (PDCP) sublayer, and a service data adaptation protocol (SDAP)sublayer. They terminate with the base station (ng-eNB, gNB) on thenetwork side, and terminate with the UE on the user side. In addition,in the control plane, the L2 layer includes a MAC sublayer, an RLCsublayer, and a PDCP sublayer. These sublayers have the followingrelationships: the physical layer provides transmission channels for theMAC sublayer, the MAC sublayer provides logical channels for the RLCsublayer, the RLC sublayer provides RLC channels for the PDCP sublayer,and the PDCP sublayer provides radio bearers for the SDAP sublayer.

Among them, the MAC sublayer provides services such as data transfer andradio resource allocation for the upper layers, and provides servicessuch as data transmission, HARQ feedback signaling, scheduling requestsignaling, and measurement (for example, channel quality indicator CQI)for the physical layer. The MAC sublayer also provides mapping betweenlogical channels and transport channels, multiplexing and demultiplexingof MAC service data units (SDU), reporting of scheduling information,error correction through HARQ, priority processing between UEs, andpriority processing among logical channels for a single UE, padding andother functions. The MAC sublayer is responsible for allocating variousradio resources (for example, resource blocks) among UEs in a cell.

The RLC sublayer provides functions such as segmentation and reassemblyof upper-layer data packets, retransmission of lost data packets, andreordering of data packets. The PDCP sublayer provides multiplexingbetween different radio bearers and logical channels. The PDCP sublayeralso provides functions such as sequence numbering, header compressionand decompression, transmission of user data and control-plane data,rearrangement and duplicate detection. In addition, the PDCP sublayeralso provides different functions for the user plane and the controlplane. The SDAP sublayer provides functions such as mapping between QoSflows and data radio bearers, and marking QoS flow ID (QFI) in upstreamand downstream data packets.

In the control plane, radio resource control (RRC) layer in Layer 3 (L3layer) is also included in the UE and the base station. The RRC layer isresponsible for obtaining radio resources (i.e., radio bearers) and forconfiguring the lower layers using RRC layer signaling between the basestation and the UE. In addition, the non-access stratum (NAS) controlprotocol in the UE performs functions such as authentication, mobilitymanagement, and security control.

Both of the base station and the UE can use the massive antennatechnology such as Massive MIMO. In order to support the application ofMIMO technology, the base station and the UE both have many antennas,such as dozens, hundreds or even thousands of antennas. For the antennamodel, a three-layer mapping relationship is generally defined aroundthe antennas, so that it can successfully undertake the channel modeland the communication standard.

The bottom layer is the most basic physical units antennas (also calledantenna elements). Each of the antenna array elements radiateselectromagnetic waves according to its own amplitude parameter and phaseparameter.

The antenna elements are arranged into one or more antenna arrays in aform of matrix. An antenna array can be composed of an entire row, anentire column, multiple rows, and multiple columns of antenna arrayelements. In this layer, each antenna array actually constitutes aTransceiver Unit (TXRU). Each TXRU can be configured independently. Byconfiguring the amplitude parameters and/or phase parameters for theantenna elements that make up the TXRU to adjust the TXRU antennapattern, the electromagnetic wave radiations emitted by all the antennaelements in the antenna array form a narrow beam pointing to a specificspatial direction, that is, beamforming is implemented. Physically, oneantenna panel may include at least one antenna array. FIG. 3A shows anexample of antenna arrays arranged in a matrix, where M_(g) and N_(g)(M_(g)≥1, N_(g)≥1) represent the number of antenna arrays in thehorizontal and vertical directions, respectively. The base station andthe UE may include one, two or more antenna panels. Generally speaking,the base station can include more antennas (for example, up to 1024)than the UE, thereby having a stronger beamforming capability.

The TXRU and its antenna elements can be configured with a variety ofcorrespondences, thereby changing capability and characteristics ofbeamforming. From the perspective of the TXRU, a single TXRU can onlycontain a single row or single column of antenna elements, i.e., aso-called one-dimensional TXRU, in which case the TXRU can only adjustthe beam direction in one dimension; a single TXRU can also containmultiple rows or multiple columns of antenna array elements, i.e., aso-called two-dimensional TXRU, in which case the TXRU can adjust thebeam direction in the horizontal and vertical dimensions. From theperspective of the antenna elements, for example, a column of antennaelements can form multiple TXRUs, but the construction may be made bypartial connection in which each of the TXRUs uses only part of theantenna elements to form a beam; it may also be made by full connectionin which each of the TXRUs can adjust the weighting coefficients of allantenna elements to form a beam.

Finally, one or more TXRUs form antenna ports seen at the system levelby logical mapping. When one-to-one mapping is employed between the TXRUand the antenna port, the TXRU and the antenna port are equivalent, asshown in FIG. 3B. Of course, depending on the system configuration, whentwo or more TXRUs belong to the coherent beam selection type, they canjointly form an antenna port.

As commonly understood, “antenna port” is defined such that a channelover which a symbol on a certain antenna port is carried can be inferredfrom a channel over which another symbol on the same antenna port iscarried. For example, for demodulation reference signal (DMRS)associated with physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), only when boththe PDSCH symbol and the DMRS symbol are in the same transmissionresource scheduled for the PDSCH, that is, in the same time slot and thesame resource block group (PRG), the channel carrying the PDSCH symbolon one antenna port can be inferred from the channel carrying the DMRSsymbol on the same antenna port. This means that different signalstransmitted by the same antenna port experience the same channelenvironment.

Generally speaking, an antenna port can be characterized by a referencesignal. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the antenna portand the reference signal, and different antenna ports are used totransmit different reference signals. The reference signal includes, forexample, channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), cellspecific reference signal (CRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), DMRS,and the like.

There may be a quasi-co-located (QCL) relationship between differentantenna ports. If the large-scale properties of the channel carryingsymbols on one antenna port can be inferred from the channel carryingsymbols on another antenna port, then the two antenna ports areconsidered to be quasi-co-located. This means that when, for example,the QCL relationship is satisfied between antenna port A and antennaport B, the large-scale property parameters of channel estimated fromsignals on antenna port A are also suitable for signals on antenna portB. The large-scale properties include at least one of the following:delay spread, Doppler spread, Doppler shift, average gain, averagedelay, and spatial reception parameters. In particular, if the antennaport A and the antenna port B have a QCL relationship with respect tothe spatial reception parameters, the same spatial reception parametercan be used on the receiving side to implement reception of the signalson the two antenna ports.

In this sense, an antenna port can be regarded as an identificationbased on air interface environment for a physical channel or a physicalsignal, and the channel environment of the same antenna port changesroughly the same, on basis of which, the channel estimation may be madeon the receiving side to perform reception and demodulation.

The process of sending data by the base station or the UE using theantenna array is briefly described below. First, baseband signalsrepresenting a user data stream are mapped onto m (m≥1) radio frequencylinks by digital precoding. Each of the radio frequency linksup-converts the baseband signal to obtain a radio frequency signal, andtransmits the radio frequency signal to the antenna array of thecorresponding antenna port. According to the transmitting direction, aset of analog beamforming parameters are applied to the antenna elementsin the antenna array. The analog beamforming parameters may include, forexample, phase setting parameters and/or amplitude setting parametersfor the antenna elements of the antenna array. According to thecorresponding analog beamforming parameters, the electromagnetic waveradiations emitted by all antenna elements of the antenna array form adesired beam in space. Receiving a beam by the antenna array has thesame principle, that is, the analog beamforming parameters associatedwith a specific direction are applied to the antenna elements in theantenna array, so that the antenna array can receive the beam in thatdirection. The foregoing processing of beamforming using analogbeamforming parameters may also be referred to as “analog precoding”.The base station or the UE may pre-store a beamforming codebook, and thebeamforming codebook includes beamforming parameters for generating alimited number of beams with different directions.

The base station or the UE can also determine the transmitting directionor the receiving direction of the beam by means of channel estimation,thereby determining the beamforming parameters associated with the beamdirection.

In addition, more flexible digital beamforming can be achieved byperforming precoding operations at the antenna port level, such asprecoding for a single user or multiple users to achieve multi-stream ormulti-user transmission.

As used in the present disclosure, the term “spatial transmissionparameter” includes beamforming parameters for forming a transmittingbeam directed in a specific spatial direction. The spatial transmissionparameters can be codebook-based, pre-configured and stored on thetransmitting side. The spatial transmission parameters may also benon-codebook-based. For example, the spatial transmission parameters maycorrespond to the transmitting direction or the channel direction, andthe base station or the UE as the transmitter may calculate the spatialtransmission parameters based on the transmitting direction or thechannel direction. In an example, the spatial emission parameter may beembodied as a spatial domain transmitting filter. It should beunderstood that in the present disclosure, “spatial transmissionparameters” may sometimes have the same meaning as “transmitting beam”used on the transmitting side.

As used in the present disclosure, the term “spatial receptionparameter” includes beamforming parameters for receiving a transmittingbeam from a specific spatial direction. The antenna array configuredwith specific spatial reception parameters can achieve optimal receptionof beam signals from the corresponding spatial direction. The spatialreception parameters can be codebook-based and pre-stored on thereceiving side. The spatial reception parameters may also be based onnon-codebooks. For example, the spatial reception parameters maycorrespond to the receiving direction or the channel direction, and thebase station or the UE as the receiver may calculate the spatialreception parameters based on the receiving direction or the channeldirection. In an example, the spatial reception parameter may beembodied as a spatial domain receiving filter. It should be understoodthat in the present disclosure, “spatial reception parameters” may havethe same meaning as “receiving beam” used on the receiving side.

With beamforming, the radiated energy can be mainly concentrated in aspecific direction to combat path loss. In order to achieve a completecoverage, the base station and the UE need to have the ability to formmany beams with different directivities, and select a transmitting beamor a receiving beam that matches the channel direction as much aspossible from these beams before using beams for transmission andreception, that is, on the transmitting side, the transmitting beam isaligned with the channel angle of departure, and on the receiving side,the receiving beam is aligned with the channel angle of arrival.

The base station and UE can select beams by means of beam training. Thebeam training generally includes processes such as beam measurement,beam reporting, and beam indication.

The beam training process in the wireless communication system will bebriefly described below with reference to FIG. 4 . In FIG. 4 , the arrowto the right represents a downlink direction from the base station 1000to the UE 1004, and the arrow to the left represents an uplink directionfrom the UE 1004 to the base station 1000. As shown in FIG. 4 , the basestation 1000 may use n_(t_DL) (n_(t_DL)≥1) downlink transmitting beamswith different directions, and the UE 1004 may use n_(r_DL) (n_(r_DL)≥1)downlink receiving beams with different directions. Similarly, the basestation 1000 may also use n_(r_UL) (n_(r_UL)≥1) uplink receivinge beamswith different directions, and the UE 1004 may also use n_(t_UL)(n_(t_UL)≥1) uplink transmitting beams with different directions.Although in FIG. 4 , the number of uplink receiving beams and downlinktransmitting beams 1002 of the base station 1000 and the coverage ofeach beam are the same, the number of uplink transmitting beams anddownlink receiving beams 1006 of the UE 1004 and the coverage of eachbeam are the same, it should be understood that, according to systemrequirements and settings, the coverage and number of the uplinkreceiving beams and the downlink transmitting beams of the base station1000 may be different, and the same is true for the uplink transmittingbeams and the downlink receiving beams of the UE 1004.

The base station 1000 and the UE 1004 traverse all transmittingbeam-receiving beam combinations by scanning beams, so as to select theoptimal transmitting beam-receiving beam pair. The downlink beamscanning is taken as an example. First, the base station 1000 transmitsn_(r_DL) downlink reference signals to the UE 1004 by each of itsn_(t_DL) transmitting beams per downlink scanning period. In this way,the n_(t_DL) transmitting beams of the base station 1000 sequentiallytransmit n_(t_DL)×n_(r_DL) downlink reference signals to the UE 1004.The n_(t_DL) transmitting beams may come from a beamforming codebook ofthe base station 1000, which corresponds to the respective spatialtransmission parameters. Reference signal resources that can be utilizedby the base station 1000 include, for example, non-zero power CSI-RS(NZP-CSI-RS) resources, synchronization signal and physical broadcastchannel block (SS/PBCH Block, SSB) resources.

The UE 1004 receives each of the transmitting beams with its n_(r_DL)receiving beams 1006, and measures the beam signal. For example, the UE1004 may measure n_(t_DL) downlink reference signals carried in eachtransmitting beam, and the n_(r_DL) receiving beams of the UE 1004receive and measure n_(t_DL)×n_(r_DL) downlink reference signals fromthe base station 1000 in total. For example, the UE 1004 may measurereference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal receivedquality (RSRQ), signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR), and thelike.

Then, the UE 1004 reports the beam measurements to the base station 1000in the form of a beam report. In order to reduce the amount of reporteddata, the UE 1004 may be configured to report only a part of beaminformation of the transmitting beams, for example, report only beaminformation of Nr (Nr is pre-configured by the base station 1000) beams.For example, the UE 1004 may report the measurements of Nr referencesignals and their indicators. Due to the correspondence between thereference signal and the transmitting beam and the receiving beam, themeasurement of each reference signal indicates beam information for apair of transmitting beam-receiving beam.

Based on the reported beam information, the base station 1000 may selectthe optimal transmitting beam from the transmitting beams reported bythe UE 1004 for downlink transmission with the UE 1004. In an example,the base station 1000 may select the transmitting beam which correspondsto the reference signal with the best measurement as the optimaltransmitting beam, the direction of which transmitting beam generallybest matches the channel direction and corresponds to the respectivespatial reception parameter.

In order to facilitate beam reception by the UE 1004, the base station1000 indicates the selected optimal transmitting beam to the UE 1004.For example, the base station 1000 may indicate the reference signalcorresponding to the optimal transmitting beam to the UE 1004, so thatthe UE 1004 can determine the receiving beam which corresponds to thereference signal in the beam scanning process as the optimal receivingbeam. The receiving beam achieves the best reception for the optimaltransmitting beam and its direction generally best matches the channeldirection. Thereafter, the base station 1000 and the UE 1004 can use thedetermined optimal transmitting beam and the optimal receiving beam fordownlink transmission.

Similarly, in the uplink beam scanning process, the UE 10004 transmitsn_(r_UL) uplink reference signals to the base station 1000 with each ofits n_(t_UL) transmitting beams. In this way, the base station 1000transmits n_(r_UL)×n_(r_UL) uplink reference signals in total with itsn_(r_UL) receiving beams. The base station 1000 measures then_(r_UL)×n_(r_UL) uplink reference signals, for example, measures RSRP,RSRQ, CQI, etc., to determine the optimal uplink transmitting beam ofthe UE 1004 and the optimal uplink receiving beam of the base station1000. The base station 1000 indicates the corresponding reference signalto the UE 1004, so that the UE 1004 can use the determined optimaltransmitting beam to be used for uplink transmission.

Typically, the base station can indicate the selected optimal beam tothe UE by using an indication mechanism by TCI states.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram illustrating the TCI state. As shownin FIG. 5 , the TCI state is identified by TCI state ID. Each TCI statecontains parameters for configuring the quasi co-location (QCL)relationship between one or two downlink reference signals and the DMRSport of PDCCH or PDSCH. For the first downlink reference signal, thisquasi co-location relationship is configured by a RRC layer parameterqcl-Type1. If there is the second downlink reference signal, the quasico-location relationship is configured by an optional qcl-Type2. Asshown in FIG. 5 , the qcl-Type1 or qcl-Type2 parameter include thefollowing information:

-   -   Serving cell index (ServCellIndex), which represents the serving        cell where the reference signal is located;        -   Bandwidth part ID (BWP-Id), which represents the downlink            bandwidth part where the reference signal is located;        -   Reference Signal (referenceSignal), which represents a            source reference signal resource for providing QCL            information, including NZP-CSI-RS resource identified by            NZP-CSI-RS-ResoureId and SSB resource identified by            SSB-Index;        -   QCL type (qcl-Type), which represents the quasi co-location            type corresponding to the listed downlink reference signal.

Depending on the large-scale property of the wireless channel that needsto be inferred, the QCL type qcl-Type involved in the TCI state mayinclude the following options:

-   -   “typeA”: with respect to {Doppler frequency shift, Doppler        spread, average delay, delay spread};    -   “typeB”: with respect to {Doppler frequency shift, Doppler        extension};    -   “typeC”: with respect to {Doppler shift, average delay};    -   “typeD”: with respect to {spatial reception parameters}.

To avoid ambiguity, each TCI state generally only allows one QCLhypothesis of the type “typeD”.

Among them, when the UE receives a TCI state of type D, the UE makes thefollowing QCL hypothesis: the antenna port of the reference signal(hereinafter referred to as “source reference signal”) listed in the TCIstate and the antenna port of the reference signal (hereinafter referredto as the “target reference signal”) indicated by the TCI state forpurpose of receiving has a quasi co-location relationship with respectto the spatial reception parameters, so that the spatial receptionparameters previously used to receive the source reference signal (forexample, spatial domain receiving filter) can be used to receive thetarget reference signal.

The existing beam indication using the TCI state will be described inmore detail below with reference to FIG. 6 . As shown in FIG. 6 , in aprocess such as the downlink beam scanning, the base station transmits asource reference signal (for example, SSB or NZP-CSI-RS) to the UE witha transmitting beam, and the UE receives the source reference signalwith a receiving beam, and determines the spatial reception parametersfor the source reference signal. The base station determines thistransmitting beam as the optimal transmitting beam of PDCCH or PDSCHunder a beam selection strategy, and indicates the source referencesignal corresponding to the transmitting beam to the UE. The indicationfor the source reference signal can be implemented by includingindication information of the TCI state referring to the sourcereference signal in a control signaling such as MAC control element (MACCE) or downlink control information (DCI).

The UE decodes the control signaling and extracts the TCI state, findsthe qcl-Type1 or qcl-Type2 whose qcl-Type parameter is set to “typeD” inthe TCI state, and finds therefrom an identifier of the source referencesignal, such as NZP-CSI-RS-ResoureId or SSB-Index. The UE will assumethat the port of the source reference signal and the port of the targetreference signal, that is, the DMRS port of PDCCH or PDSCH scheduled bythe above-mentioned control signaling, have a quasi co-locationrelationship with respect to spatial reception parameters, so that theUE can use the spatial reception parameters for receiving the sourcereference signal to receive the DMRS of the scheduled PDCCH or PDSCH forcoherent demodulation of the PDCCH or PDSCH.

Seen from the base station side, the base station ensures that there isa substantial QCL relationship of typeD between the source referencesignal and the target reference signal. For this reason, thetransmitting beam used by the base station when transmitting the PDCCHor PDSCH is the same as the transmitting beam used when transmitting thesource reference signal, or at least has the same transmission direction

However, the existing beam indication mechanism faces problems regardingavailability of the TCI states. For example, when the TCI stateresources are scarce, and it is impossible to assign TCI states to allreference signals, resulting in the possibility that there may not be aTCI state corresponding to the source reference signal. For anotherexample, although there is a TCI state corresponding to the sourcereference signal, the base station did not configure or activate the TCIstate to the UE. For yet another example, the TCI state corresponding tothe source reference signal is not of typeD, and cannot be used forindicating a beam to the UE. For still yet another example, the type ofsource reference signal is restricted to be unusable for beamindication, and so on.

Considering various problems regarding availability of the TCI states,the base station's beam selection may be restricted, so that the basestation cannot select one or more beams which have the best transmissionperformance but lack the available TCI state, resulting in a decrease inperformance of the beam indication. Alternatively, the base stationneeds to reconfigure and activate the TCI state for the selected optimalbeam, which will undoubtedly consume a lot of processing resources andtransmission resources, resulting in a decrease in efficiency of thebeam indication.

In view of these, the present disclosure proposes an improved beamindication mechanism to make up for the shortcomings of the existingbeam indication.

Specifically, when the base station selects the transmittingbeam-receiving beam pair corresponding to the source reference signal toperform data transmission, the TCI state corresponding to the sourcereference signal may not exist or the TCI state corresponding to thesource reference signal is not available for the beam indication, butthere is an available TCI state corresponding to another referencesignal (hereinafter referred to as “intermediate reference signal”). Thebase station can create an association between the source referencesignal and the another reference signal, and configure this associationto the UE through RRC layer signaling. The base station uses theintermediate reference signal to perform beam indication instead. Forexample, the base station may indicate the TCI state referring to theintermediate reference signal to the UE with MAC CE or DCI.

However, unlike the existing beam indication described with reference toFIG. 6 , the indication by the base station using the intermediatereference signal is not intended to indicate a direct use of the spatialreception parameters for the intermediate reference signal. Afterreceiving the indication of the intermediate reference signal, the UEimplements reception of the DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH for coherentdemodulation of the PDCCH or PDSCH by using the spatial receptionparameters for the source reference signal, instead of the spatialreception parameters for the intermediate reference signal, based on theassociation between the intermediate reference signal and the sourcereference signal. In the example of using the TCI state for indication,the UE finds an identifier of the intermediate reference signal from theindicated TCI state, such as NZP-CSI-RS-ResoureId or SSB-Index. However,the UE does not directly use the spatial reception parameters for thereference signal represented by the identifier to receive the targetreference signal, but finds the source reference signal based on theassociation between the configured source reference signal and theintermediate reference signal, and uses the spatial reception parametersfor the source reference signal to make preparations for reception ofthe PDCCH or PDSCH.

By establishing the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal, the indication of the sourcereference signal can be implemented via the intermediate referencesignal. Therefore, the beam indication according to the presentdisclosure is an indirect beam indication.

The indirect beam indication according to the present disclosureprovides additional flexibility. The selection of the optimal beam is nolonger limited by whether there is an available TCI state correspondingto the reference signal. Even if the TCI state corresponding to thereference signal does not exist or is unavailable due to any otherfactors, the base station can still indirectly implement the indicationof the source reference signal based on the association between theintermediate reference signal and the source reference signal.

It can be understood that by creating an association between tworeference signals, the range of reference signals available for beamindication is actually expanded. Further, the present disclosure alsoproposes that it is possible to create an association between one set ofmultiple reference signals and another set of multiple referencesignals, and to perform, by each reference signal in one set ofreference signals, indication of itself or a corresponding referencesignal of another set of reference signals, so as to further improve theefficiency of the beam indication, as described in detail below.

It should be noted that the “association” mentioned in the presentdisclosure refers to any form of correlation between two referencesignals, as long as the base station and the UE can determine the otherreference signal from one reference signal based on such correlation.The “association” can include an association between identifiers of thetwo reference signals, or an association between information elements(for example, TCI states, SpatialRelationInfo, etc.) that refer to thetwo reference signals, and also an association between an identifier ofone reference signal and information element of another referencesignal.

For a thorough understanding of the present disclosure, embodimentsembodying various aspects of the present disclosure will be described indetail below.

First Embodiment

The first embodiment of the present disclosure relates to beamindication for downlink transmission, that is, in the first embodiment,the target reference signal is a downlink reference signal. Thefollowing description will take DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH as an example ofthe target reference signal. However, it should be understood that thefirst embodiment of the present disclosure is also applicable to beamindication of downlink reference signals such as CSI-RS orsynchronization signals.

FIG. 7 is a simplified schematic diagram illustrating beam indicationaccording to the first embodiment. Different from the existing beamindication described with reference to FIG. 6 , in the first embodimentof the present disclosure, for the reception of the target referencesignal, the reference signal used by the beam indication and thereference signal providing the spatial reception parameters are twodifferent reference signals.

In some cases, the base station wishes to transmit the target referencesignal using the transmitting beam used previously to transmit thesource reference signal, and accordingly, the UE receives the targetreference signal by using the receiving beam used previously to receivethe source reference signal. However, the base station may not havegenerated a TCI state having a QCL hypothesis of typeD for the sourcereference signal, or even this TCI state exists, the TCI state has notbeen configured or activated for the UE or is restricted in indicatingthe target reference signal.

As shown in FIG. 7 , the base station can create an association betweenthe source reference signal and another reference signal (theintermediate reference signal) having an available TCI state.

The association between the source reference signal and the intermediatereference signal can be any form of correlation.

In a preferred example, the port of the source reference signal and theport of the intermediate reference signal have a QCL relationship. Morepreferably, the port of the source reference signal and the port of theintermediate reference signal have a QCL relationship of typeD.

In the 5G NR standard R15, configurable QCL relationships are definedfor various reference signals. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagramillustrating the QCL relationships between various reference signals. Asshown in FIG. 8 , for CSI-RS used for beam management (denoted as CSI-RS(BM) in FIG. 8 ), it may have a QCL relationship of typeC and typeD withthe SSB resource, which is denoted as a “C+D” arrow between CSI-RS (BM)and SSB. In addition, CSI-RS (BM) may also have a QCL relationship oftypeD with another CSI-RS (BM) used for beam management, and a QCLrelationship of typeD with CSI-RS used for tracking (indicated asCSI-RS(TRS) in FIG. 8 ).

Similarly, CSI-RS (TRS) used for tracking and CSI-RS (CSI) used for CSImeasurement may have corresponding QCL relationships with SSB resourcesor CSI-RS for other purposes, respectively.

In particular, for DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH, it may have a QCLrelationship of typeD with CSI-RS (BM), a QCL relationship of typeA ortypeA+typeD with CSI-RS (TRS), and a QCL relationship of typeA ortypeA+typeD with CSI-RS (CSI). CSI-RS (BM), CSI-RS (TRS), and CSI-RS(CSI) all can be used to indicate a QCL relationship with respect tospatial reception parameters for DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH.

Also, it can be seen from FIG. 8 that SSB cannot be used to directlyindicate a QCL relationship for DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH.

By means of the indirect beam indication of the present disclosure,various CSI-RSs such as CSI-RS (BM), CSI-RS (TRS) or CSI-RS (CSI) can beused as the intermediate reference signal to convey a QCL relationshipbetween SSB and DMRS. As shown by the bold arrow in FIG. 8 , a QCLrelationship of typeD between SSB as the source reference signal andCSI-RS (CSI) as the intermediate reference signal can be created and, aQCL relationship of typeA+typeD between it and DMRS of PDCCH isindicated by CSI-RS (CSI). In this way, a QCL chain ofSSB→CSI-RS(CSI)→DMRS can be achieved.

Obviously, the selection of the intermediate reference signal may not belimited to CSI-RS (CSI), but may be any other suitable reference signal.For example, although not shown in FIG. 8 , a QCL chain ofSSB→CSI-RS(BM)→DMRS or a QCL chain of CSI-RS(BM)→CSI-RS(TRS)→DMRS can beachieved similarly.

In some cases, the intermediate reference signal is not limited to one.In other words, the QCL chain from the source reference signal to thetarget reference signal can be achieved via two or more referencesignals. For example, a QCL chain of SSB→CSI-RS(BM)→CSI-RS(TRS)→DMRS maybe established, where the TCI state referring to CSI-RS(TRS) can be usedfor beam indication for DMRS, but the association between SSB as thesource reference signal and CSI-RS (TRS) may include a QCL relationshipbetween SSB and CSI-RS (BM) and a QCL relationship between CSI-RS (BM)and CSI-RS (TRS). A longer QCL chain is feasible, but it may complicatethe indication process.

Alternatively, the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal may not be a QCL relationship oftypeD. Even the relationship between the two may not be a QCLrelationship, but only a nominal correlation, as long as the UE can findthe source reference signal from the indicated intermediate referencesignal.

Returning to FIG. 7 , the base station configures the associationbetween the source reference signal and the intermediate referencesignal to the UE by RRC layer signaling. The UE receives configurationinformation on such association and stores it in its own memory.

Then, the base station can use the intermediate reference signal toperform beam indication. The TCI state referring to the intermediatereference signal can be indicated to the UE by MAC CE or DCI. Theindication process for PDCCH transmission and PDSCH transmission will bedescribed in detail later.

After receiving the TCI state referring to the intermediate referencesignal, the UE can find an identifier of the intermediate referencesignal referred to from the TCI state, such as NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID orSSB Index.

At this time, the UE needs to interpret whether the TCI state indicateswhether to directly use the spatial reception parameters for theintermediate reference signal to receive PDSCH or PDCCH, or to use thespatial reception parameters for the associated source reference signal.That is, the UE needs to determine whether to enable the associationfrom the intermediate reference signal to the source reference signal.

In an example, the UE may determine whether to enable the association bychecking the received TCI state. For example, the UE detects that theintermediate reference signal is of the type restricted in beamindication for DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH, such as the SSB resource thatcannot directly perform beam indication for PDCCH or PDSCH, in whichcase the UE determines that the spatial reception parameters for theintermediate reference signal cannot be used directly. For anotherexample, the UE may determine that the TCI state does not include a QCLhypothesis of type D therein, and thus the spatial reception parametersfor the intermediate reference signal cannot be directly used. For yetanother example, the UE may determine that the intermediate referencesignal has not been received previously, and there are no correspondingspatial reception parameters.

In response to determining that the spatial reception parameters for theintermediate reference signal cannot be used directly, the UE determinesto enable the association from the intermediate reference signal to thesource reference signal, and uses the spatial parameters for previouslyreceiving the source reference signal to configure its spatial domainreception filter, so as to get ready for reception of the DMRS of PDSCHor PDCCH.

In another example, the base station may send information about whetherto enable the association to the UE, so that upon receiving suchinformation, the UE can easily determine the spatial receptionparameters for which of the intermediate reference signal and the sourcereference signal should be used. The information about whether to enablethe association can be represented by as few as 1 bit. For example, itcan be sent to the UE in MAC CE or DCI along with the TCI state, and ofcourse can also be sent to the UE by another signaling.

In response to receiving the information on enabling the association,the UE can find the source reference signal based on the associationbetween the source reference signal and the intermediate referencesignal, and use the spatial reception parameters for previouslyreceiving the source reference signal to configure its spatial domainreception filter, so as to get ready for reception of the DMRS of PDSCHor PDCCH.

In another example, the UE may always enable the association between thesource reference signal and the intermediate reference signal in a casewhere the association was received. In other words, configuring theassociation to the UE by the base station serves as a trigger to enablethis association.

After the beam indication takes effect (for example, 3 ms after the TCIstate is sent), the base station can use the selected transmitting beamto transmit PDCCH or PDSCH and its DMRS.

In order to ensure that the spatial reception parameters for the sourcereference signal can be used for the reception of the target referencesignal, the antenna port of the source reference signal and the antennaport of the target reference signal need to have a QCL relationship oftypeD. For this reason, the transmitting beam used by the base stationwhen transmitting the target reference signal is the same, or at leasthas the same transmission direction, as the transmitting beam used whenpreviously transmitting the source reference signal. In a case where thewireless channel has great time selectivity and frequency selectivity,the time-frequency resources (for example, time slots, subcarriers,etc.) used by the base station to transmit the source reference signaland the target reference signal are approximately the same, so that thechannel environment experienced by the target reference signal issimilar to the channel environment experienced by the source referencesignal.

On the UE side, the source reference signal was ever receivedpreviously, for example, in the previous beam scanning process, CSImeasurement process, beam tracking process, and so on. The spatialreception parameters for the source reference signal are held in the UE.In response to the indication of the intermediate reference signal andthe association between the intermediate reference signal and the sourcereference signal, the UE makes the following assumption: the targetreference signal and the source reference signal have a QCL relationshipwith respect to spatial reception parameters, and the spatial receptionparameters for the source reference signal shall be used to implementthe reception of the target reference signal.

Some examples of the indirect beam indication according to the firstembodiment are described below. It should be understood that thefollowing examples are only used to illustrate representative scenariosin which the first embodiment can be applied, and are not intended tolimit the aspects of the first embodiment.

Example 1

FIG. 9 is a simplified diagram of Example 1 of the indirect beamindication according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 9 , thetarget reference signal is DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH. The source referencesignal is an SSB resource which is identified by SSB_Index. Since thesystem has restricted that SSB cannot be directly used for DMRS beamindication, NZP-CSI-RS can be used as an intermediate reference signalfor indication.

The base station configures the association between the source referencesignal SSB and the intermediate reference signal NZP-CSI-RS to the UE.As described above, the association includes but is not limited to theQCL relationship of typeD between SSB and NZP-CSI-RS.

The association may be established on various levels. For example, anassociation between an identifier SSB_Index of the SSB and an identifierNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of the NZP-CSI-RS, and an association between anidentifier SSB_Index of the SSB and TCI state ID of a TCI statereferring to the NZP-CSI-RS, an association between TCI state ID of aTCI state referring to the SSB and TCI state ID of a TCI state referringto the NZP-CSI-RS or the like may be established.

The base station indicates to the UE the TCI state that refers to theNZP-CSI-RS through MAC CE or DCI. It should be noted that the TCI statemay or may not include an additional QCL hypothesis. For brevity,another optional qcl hypothesis is not shown in FIG. 9 . The UE receivesthe indication, and finds NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID from the QCL hypothesisof typeD (for example, qcl-Type1 in FIG. 9 ).

Based on the association between the NZP-CSI-RS and the source referencesignal SSB, the UE finds the source reference signal identified bySSB_Index. The UE makes the following assumption: there is a QCL chainof SSB→NZP-CSI-RS→DMRS, and there is a QCL relationship of typeD betweenthe source reference signal SSB and the target reference signal DMRS.Thus, the UE prepares for reception of the DMRS by using the spatialreception parameters previously used to receive the SSB.

Typically, SSB resources are used in the initial access phase, and eachSSB corresponds to a relatively wide beam, so that a small number ofwide beams can be used to cover the entire cell. After the initialaccess, CSI-RSs are used for beam management, tracking, CSI measurementand the like, and each CSI-RS may correspond to a relatively narrowbeam. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 10 , it may appear that the beam rangeof the SSB includes more than one CSI-RS, that is, more than one CSI-RSmay have a QCL relationship with the SSB. The base station may select,from these CSI-RS, the CSI-RS whose main beam direction is closest tothe main beam direction of the SSB as the intermediate reference signal,and notifies the UE of the QCL association between the CSI-RS and theSSB. Alternatively, the base station may select any one of these CSI-RSas the intermediate reference signal.

Example 2

FIG. 11 is a simplified diagram of Example 2 of the indirect beamindication according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 11 , thetarget reference signal is DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH. The source referencesignal is an NZP-CSI-RS resource, which is identified byNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID.

In situations such as the initial access, in order to achieve cellcoverage in a high frequency band, the base station may configure all ormost of the TCI states to refer to SSB. In this way, there is not enoughTCI state quota to configure other reference signals. Therefore, theremay not be a TCI state corresponding to the source reference signal.

According to Example 2, the base station can use the configured TCIstate referring to SSB for indirect beam indication.

The base station configures the association between the source referencesignal NZP-CSI-RS and the intermediate reference signal SSB to the UE.As described above, the association includes but is not limited to a QCLrelationship of typeD between the SSB and the NZP-CSI-RS.

The association may be established on various levels. For example, anassociation between an identifier NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of theNZP-CSI-RS and an identifier SSB_Index of the SSB, an associationbetween an identifier NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of the NZP-CSI-RS and TCIstate ID of a TCI state referring to the SSB or the like may beestablished.

The base station indicates to the UE the TCI state referring to theNZP-CSI-RS through MAC CE or DCI. It should be noted that the TCI statemay or may not include an additional QCL hypothesis. For brevity,another optional QCL hypothesis is not shown in FIG. 11 . The UEreceives the indication, and finds SSB_Index from the QCL hypothesis oftypeD (for example, qcl-Type1 in FIG. 11 ).

The UE may determine that the SSB cannot be directly used for the beamindication for DMRS, thereby enabling the association between theintermediate reference signal and the source reference signal.Alternatively, the UE may also receive information about whether toenable the association from the base station.

Based on the association between the NZP-CSI-RS and the source referencesignal SSB, the UE finds the source reference signal identified by theNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID. The UE makes the following assumption: there is aQCL chain of NZP-CSI-RS→SSB→DMRS, and there is a QCL relationship oftypeD between the source reference signal NZP-CSI-RS and the targetreference signal DMRS. Thus, the UE prepares for reception of the DMRSby using the spatial reception parameters previously used to receive theNZP-CSI-RS.

Example 3

FIG. 12 is a simplified diagram of Example 3 of the indirect beamindication according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 12 , thetarget reference signal is DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH. The source referencesignal is an NZP-CSI-RS resource, which is identified byNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID.

Typically, the number of TCI states configured and activated by the basestation for each UE is limited, for example, at most 64 TCI states areconfigured or at most 8 TCI states among them are further activated forthe UE each time. There may be situations in which the TCI statecorresponding to the source reference signal is not configured oractivated for the UE, resulting in the TCI state corresponding to thesource reference signal unavailable for beam indication, as shown inFIG. 12 , the TCI state corresponding to the source reference signal isdrawn by a dotted line.

According to Example 3, the base station can use the TCI state referringto the intermediate reference signal for indirect beam indication.

The base station configures the association between the source referencesignal NZP-CSI-RS and the intermediate reference signal (such as SSB orNZP-CSI-RS) to the UE. As described above, the association includes butis not limited to a QCL relationship of typeD between SSB andNZP-CSI-RS.

The association may be established on various levels. For example, anassociation between an identifier NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of the sourcereference signal and an identifier (SSB_Index or NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID)of the intermediate reference signal, an association between TCI stateID of a TCI state referring to the source reference signal and TCI stateID of a TCI state referring to the intermediate reference signal or thelike may be established.

The base station indicates a TCI state referring to the intermediatereference signal to the UE through MAC CE or DCI. It should be notedthat the TCI state may or may not include an additional QCL hypothesis.For brevity, another optional qcl hypothesis is not shown in FIG. 12 .The UE receives the indication, and finds an identifier of theintermediate reference signal (for example, SSB Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourcelD) from the QCL hypothesis of typeD (for example,qcl-Type1 in FIG. 12 ).

The UE may determine that it is necessary to enable the associationbetween the intermediate reference signal and the source referencesignal. Based on the association between the intermediate referencesignal and the source reference signal, the UE finds the sourcereference signal identified by NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID. The UE makes thefollowing assumption: there is a QCL chain ofNZP-CSI-RS→SSB/NZP-CSI-RS→DMRS, and there is a QCL relationship of typeDbetween the source reference signal NZP-CSI-RS and the target referencesignal DMRS. Thus, the UE prepares for reception of the DMRS by usingthe spatial reception parameters previously used to receive NZP-CSI-RS.

Example 4

FIG. 13 is a simplified diagram of Example 4 of the indirect beamindication according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 13 , thetarget reference signal is DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH. The source referencesignal is, for example, an NZP-CSI-RS resource identified byNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID.

In Example 4 according to the first embodiment, the base station mayperform the beam indication with a TCI state that does not include a QCLhypothesis of typeD. For example, as shown in the upper part of FIG. 13, both of the two QCL hypotheses (qcl-Type1 and qcl-Type2) of the TCIstate are not of typeD, or as shown in the lower part of FIG. 13 , theTCI state contains only one QCL hypothesis (qcl-Type1) which is not oftypeD. In the existing beam indication, the TCI state including no QCLhypothesis of typeD cannot be used for the beam indication.

According to Example 4, the base station may configure the associationbetween the source reference signal (such as SSB or NZP-CSI-RS) and theintermediate reference signal to the UE. For example, as describedabove, the association includes but is not limited to a QCL relationshipbetween the SSB and the NZP-CSI-RS.

The association may be established on various levels. For example, anassociation between an identifier (SSB_Index or NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID)of the source reference signal and an identifier NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceIDof the intermediate reference signal, an identifier (SSB_Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID) of the source reference signal and TCI state IDof a TCI state referring to the intermediate reference signal, anassociation between TCI state ID of a TCI state referring to the sourcereference signal and TCI state ID of a TCI state referring to theintermediate reference signal or the like may be established.

In an example, the NZP-CSI-RS as the source reference signal and theNZP-CSI-RS as the intermediate reference signal may be the sameNZP-CSI-RS resource, that is, have the same NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID.

The base station indicates the TCI state referring to the intermediatereference signal to the UE through MAC CE or DCI.

The UE can determine that since the TCI state does not include a QCLhypothesis of typeD, the association between the intermediate referencesignal and the source reference signal should be enabled. The UE mayalso determine whether the association should be activated or not basedon association enabling information from the base station, as describedabove.

Based on the association between the intermediate reference signal andthe source reference signal, the UE finds the source reference signalidentified by SSB_Index or NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID. The UE makes thefollowing assumption: There is a QCL relationship of typeD between thesource reference signal NZP-CSI-RS and the target reference signal DMRS.Thus, the UE prepares for reception of the DMRS by using the spatialreception parameters previously used to receive the SSB or theNZP-CSI-RS.

It should be noted that Examples 1 to 4 described above can be appliedindividually or in any combination depending on the actual applicationscenario.

Indication process for PDCCH transmission and PDSCH transmission isintroduced below.

(Beam Indication for PDCCH Transmission)

According to the beam indication of the present disclosure, the basestation can activate the selected beam by transmitting MAC CE forscheduling the PDCCH. As used herein, “activate” refers to enabling thebeam(s) listed by the MAC CE in the beam set configured for the UE.After the activation, for example, after 3 ms, the base station can usethe selected transmitting beam for PDCCH transmission, and the UE canuse the receiving beam corresponding to the transmitting beam to monitorthe PDCCH.

First, the base station configures M (for example, 64 or 128) TCI statesfor the UE through RRC layer signaling. For example, the base stationcan set tci-StatesPDCCH-ToAddList to configure the TCI states for theUE.

Then, the base station generates a single MAC CE including the TCI stateID associated with the beam selected in the beam selection at the MAClayer, and the format of the MAC CE is shown in FIG. 14 .

In the MAC CE shown in FIG. 14 (which does not show the header of theMAC CE):

-   -   The first octet: a R field which indicates a reserved 1 bit; a        serving cell ID field which indicates ID of the serving cell to        which the MAC CE applies, and has a length of 5 bits; a BWP ID        field which contains BWP-Id of the downlink bandwidth part to        which the MAC CE applies, and has a length of 2 bits;    -   The second octet: an identifier (CORESET ID) of the control        resource set (ControlResourceSet) where the PDCCH associated        with the selected beam is present, and an identifier (TCI state        ID) of the TCI state of the PDCCH, these two identifiers        occupying 2 bits and 6 bits, respectively; a 6-bit TCI-StateId        can indicates up to 64 TCI states.

The UE receives a MAC packet containing the MAC CE and submits it to theUE's MAC layer for decoding. The UE extracts the CORESET ID and TCIstate ID in the MAC CE, and finds the reference signal identified by thereference signal identifier (for example, SSB_Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID) in the TCI state identified by the TCI state ID.

In the case of the indirect beam indication according to the presentdisclosure, the UE finds the associated source reference signal based onthe association between the reference signal in the TCI state andanother reference signal, and assumes that the port of the sourcereference signal and the DMRS port of the PDCCH are in a QCLrelationship of typeD, so that the PDCCH is received using the spatialreception parameters (the receiving beam) used when receiving the samesource reference signal previously. After the configuration of the MACCE starts to take effect (for example, after 3 ms), the UE will start touse the determined receiving beam to monitor the PDCCH.

(Beam Indication for PDSCH Transmission)

Typically, the base station uses MAC CE activation plus DCI designationto indicate the beam used for PDSCH transmission.

Specifically, first, the base station configures a maximum of M (forexample, M=64 or 128) TCI states for the UE in the RRC layer.

Then, the base station activates up to 8 of the configured TCI statesfor the UE through MAC CE. However, if the TCI states configured by theRRC layer do not exceed 8, that is, M≤8, the MAC CE activation step canbe omitted.

FIG. 15A illustrates a format (excluding the header) of the MAC CE usedto activate the TCI states. As shown in FIG. 15A, “R” field represents areserved bit, “Serving Cell ID” represents identification information ofthe serving cell to which the MAC CE applies, which occupies 5 bits, and“BWP ID” represents identification information of the downlink bandwidthpart (such as BWP Id) to which the MAC CE applies, which occupies 2bits, “Ti” represents activation information of the M TCI statesconfigured by the RRC layer, which occupies 1 bit, and if it is set to“1”, it means the corresponding TCI state is activated, otherwise itmeans the corresponding TCI state is deactivated.

Finally, the base station can specify the TCI state corresponding to thebeam selected for PDSCH transmission in the DCI. FIG. 15B illustrates aformat of DCI that can be used to specify the TCI state, the DCI ofwhich includes an identification field of the TCI state associated withthe selected beam. Each TCI state identification field occupies 3 bitsto specify one of at most 8 TCI states.

In addition, in the indirect beam indication according to the presentdisclosure, as shown in FIG. 15B, the DCI may also optionally includeassociation enabling information. The association enabling informationmay be only 1 bit. For example, when the association enablinginformation is set to “1”, it means that the association between thesource reference signal and the intermediate reference signal isenabled, otherwise it means that the association is not enabled.

The DCI may be sent to the UE through, for example, PDCCH. The UEreceives the DCI and extracts various fields from it. By means of theTCI state identification field indicating the beam in the DCI, the UEcan find the reference signal identified by the reference signalidentifier (for example, SSB_Index or NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID).

In the indirect beam indication according to the present disclosure, theUE can determine whether to enable the association between theintermediate reference signal and the source reference signal based onthe type of the reference signal, the presence or absence of the spatialreception parameters for the reference signal, the QCL type in the TCIstat or the like. Alternatively, the UE may determine whether to enablethe association between the intermediate reference signal and the sourcereference signal based on the association enabling information in theDCI. If it is determined that the association between the intermediatereference signal and the source reference signal should be enabled, theUE finds the source reference signal based on this association.

The UE uses the spatial reception parameters for the source referencesignal to determine the spatial reception parameters (the receivingbeam) for monitoring the PDSCH, so as to implement reception of the beamof the PDSCH.

(Electronic Device and Communication Method According to the FirstEmbodiment)

Next, an electronic device and a communication method that can implementthe first embodiment of the present disclosure are described.

FIG. 16A is a block diagram illustrating the electronic device 100according to the first embodiment. The electronic device 100 may be a UEor a component of the UE.

As shown in FIG. 16A, the electronic device 100 includes a processingcircuitry 101. The processing circuitry 101 includes at least anassociation configuration receiving unit 102, an indication receivingunit 103, and a reference signal receiving unit 104. The processingcircuitry 101 may be configured to perform the communication methodshown in FIG. 16B. The processing circuitry 101 may refer to variousimplementations of a digital circuitry, an analog circuitry, or a mixedsignal (combination of analog signal and digital signal) circuitry thatperforms functions in a computing system. The processing circuitry mayinclude, for example, circuits such as integrated circuit (IC),application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a part or circuit of anindividual processor core, an entire processor core, an individualprocessor, a programmable hardware device such as field programmablearray (FPGA)), and/or a system including multiple processors.

The association configuration receiving unit 102 in the processingcircuitry 101 is configured to receive configuration on an associationbetween a source reference signal and an intermediate reference signalfrom a control device such as a base station, that is, to perform stepS101 in FIG. 16B. The association configuration receiving unit 102 isconfigured to receive RRC signaling regarding the association betweenthe source reference signal and the intermediate reference signal. Theprocessing circuitry 101 may store the received association informationin the UE, for example, in the memory 106.

The indication receiving unit 103 is configured to receive an indicationfor the intermediate reference signal from the base station, that is, toperform step S102 in FIG. 16B. The indication receiving unit 103 mayreceive indication information of a TCI state corresponding to theintermediate reference signal through MAC CE or DCI.

The reference signal receiving unit 104 is configured to use the spatialreception parameters for the source reference signal to receive a targetreference signal based on the association between the intermediatereference signal and the source reference signal in response to theindication for the intermediate reference signal, that is, to performstep S103 in FIG. 16B. The reference signal receiving unit 104 finds thesource reference signal from the intermediate reference signal referredto in the TCI state received by the indication receiving unit 103 basedon the association between the intermediate reference signal and thesource reference signal, and configures the antenna array by usingspatial reception parameters previously determined when receiving thesource reference signal, to facilitate the reception of PDCCH or PDSCHand its DMRS.

The electronic device 100 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 105 and a memory 106.

The communication unit 105 may be configured to communicate with a basestation under the control of the processing circuitry 101. In anexample, the communication unit 105 may be implemented as a transmitteror transceiver, including communication components such as an antennaarray and/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 105 is drawnwith a dashed line because it can also be located outside the electronicdevice 100. The communication unit 105 may receive configurationinformation on the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal, the beam indication information andthe like from the base station. The communication unit 105 can alsoreceive the DMRS transmitted by the base station.

The electronic device 100 may further include a memory 106. The memory106 can store various data and instructions, such as configurationinformation on the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal and the beam indication information,programs and data used for operation of the electronic device 100,various data generated by the processing circuitry 101, data received bythe communication unit 105, and the like. The memory 106 is drawn with adashed line because it may also be located within the processingcircuitry 101 or outside the electronic device 100. The memory 106 maybe a volatile memory and/or a non-volatile memory. For example, thememory 102 may include, but is not limited to, random access memory(RAM), dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory(SRAM), read only memory (ROM), and flash memory.

FIG. 17A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 200according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 200 may be acontrol device such as a base station or located in a control devicesuch as a base station.

As shown in FIG. 17A, the electronic device 200 includes a processingcircuitry 201. The processing circuitry 201 includes at least anassociation configuration sending unit 202 and an indication sendingunit 203. The processing circuitry 201 may be configured to execute thecommunication method shown in FIG. 17B. The processing circuitry 201 mayrefer to various implementations of a digital circuitry, an analogcircuitry, or a mixed signal (combination of analog signal and digitalsignal) circuitry that performs functions in a computing system. Theprocessing circuitry may include, for example, circuits such asintegrated circuit (IC), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC),a part or circuit of an individual processor core, an entire processorcore, an individual processor, a programmable hardware device such asfield programmable array (FPGA)), and/or a system including multipleprocessors.

The association configuration sending unit 202 of the processingcircuitry 201 is configured to send configuration on an associationbetween a source reference signal and an intermediate reference signalto the UE, that is, to perform step S201 in FIG. 17B. The associationconfiguration sending unit 202 may create an association between tworeference signals, and configure such association to the UE through RRClayer signaling.

The indication sending unit 203 is configured to send an indication forthe intermediate reference signal to the UE, that is, to perform stepS202 in FIG. 17B. The indication sending unit 203 may include indicationinformation of a TCI state corresponding to the intermediate referencesignal in the MAC CE or DCI.

In response to the indication for the intermediate reference signal, theUE may configure the antenna array by using spatial reception parametersdetermined from the spatial reception parameters for the sourcereference signal based on the association between the intermediatereference signal and the source reference signal, to facilitate thereception of a target reference signal, such as DMRS of PDCCH or PDSCH.

The electronic device 200 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 205 and a memory 206.

The communication unit 205 may be configured to communicate with the UEunder the control of the processing circuitry 201. In an example, thecommunication unit 205 may be implemented as a transmitter ortransceiver, including communication components such as an antenna arrayand/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 205 is drawn witha dashed line because it can also be located outside the electronicdevice 200. The communication unit 205 may send configurationinformation on the association between the intermediate reference signaland the source reference signal and the beam indication information forthe intermediate reference signal to the UE.

The electronic device 200 may further include a memory 206. The memory206 can store various data and instructions, such as programs and datafor operation of the electronic device 200, various data generated bythe processing circuitry 201, various control signaling or service datato be sent by the communication unit 205, the association configurationinformation, beam indication information to be sent by communicationunit 205, and the like. The memory 206 is drawn with a dashed linebecause it may also be located within the processing circuitry 201 oroutside the electronic device 200. The memory 206 may be a volatilememory and/or a non-volatile memory. For example, the memory 202 mayinclude, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), dynamicrandom access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), readonly memory (ROM), and flash memory.

Second Embodiment

The second embodiment of the present disclosure relates to beamindication for uplink transmission, that is, in the second embodiment,the target reference signal is an uplink reference signal. The followingdescription will be made by taking DMRS of PUCCH and sounding referencesignal (SRS) as examples of the target reference signal, but it shouldbe understood that the target reference signal may also be other uplinkreference signals.

In the standard R15 of 5G NR, the base station implements the beamindication for uplink transmission by configuring spatial relationinformation to the UE and activating with MAC CE. FIGS. 18A and 18Billustrate the configuration of two kinds of spatial relationinformation, respectively.

FIG. 18A illustrates the configuration of PUCCH spatial relationinformation for scheduling PUCCH. As shown in FIG. 18A, the PUCCHspatial relation information is identified by PUCCH spatial relationinformation ID (PUCCH-SpatialRelationInfold), and includes a sourcereference signal resource for providing spatial relation information,such as an NZP-CSI-RS resource identified by NZP-CSI-RS-ResoureId, a SSBresource identified by SSB-Index, and a SRS resource jointly identifiedby SRS-ResourceId and BWP-Id. If SSB or NZP-CSI-RS is configured in thePUCCH spatial relation information, the UE should use the spatialreception parameters for receiving the SSB or NZP-CSI-RS to transmit thePUCCH and its DMRS. If SRS is configured in the PUCCH spatial relationinformation, the UE should use the spatial transmission parameters fortransmitting the SRS to transmit the PUCCH and its DMRS.

FIG. 18B illustrates the configuration of SRS spatial relationinformation for scheduling SRS. As shown in FIG. 18B, the SRS spatialrelation information is identified by the SRS spatial relationinformation ID (SRS-SpatialRelationInfoId), and includes sourcereference signal resources for providing spatial relation information,including a NZP-CSI-RS resource identified by NZP-CSI-RS-ResoureId, aSSB resource identified by SSB-Index, and a SRS resource jointlyidentified by SRS-ResourceId and BWP-Id. If SSB or NZP-CSI-RS isconfigured in the SRS spatial relation information, the UE should usethe spatial reception parameters for receiving the SSB or NZP-CSI-RS totransmit the SRS. If SRS is configured in the PUCCH spatial relationinformation, the UE should use the spatial transmission parameters fortransmitting the SRS to transmit the SRS.

The base station can activate or deactivate the spatial relationinformation by sending MAC CE to the UE.

According to the existing beam indication mechanism, the downlink beamindication using the TCI state and the uplink beam indication using thespatial relation information are performed independently of each other.This may cause excessive signaling interaction.

The second embodiment of the present disclosure proposes an improveduplink beam indication mechanism to indirectly perform the uplink beamindication simultaneously with the downlink beam indication.

The indirect beam indication according to the second embodiment will bedescribed below with reference to FIGS. 19A and 19B.

As described above, the spatial relation information configured by thebase station for the UE includes a reference signal that provides thespatial relation information for the target reference signal, that is,the source reference signal. The source reference signal may be adownlink reference signal such as SSB or NZP-CSI-RS. The UE candetermine and save its spatial reception parameters when previouslyreceiving the source reference signal. The source reference signal mayalso be an uplink reference signal such as SRS. The UE can determine andsave its spatial transmission parameters when previously transmittingthe source reference signal.

In addition, the base station can perform the beam indication to the UEwith the TCI state, so that the UE can use the spatial receptionparameters for the reference signal listed in the TCI state to implementreception of PDCCH or PDSCH.

According to the second embodiment of the present disclosure, the basestation can create an association between the source reference signal inthe spatial relation information and the reference signal (theintermediate reference signal) in the TCI state. Preferably, thisassociation may be an association between the spatial relationinformation and the TCI state, for example, an association between thespatial relation information ID and the TCI state ID. Of course, otherassociations may also be adopted, such as an association between theidentifier of the source reference signal and the identifier of theintermediate reference signal, an association between the TCI state IDand the identifier of the source reference signal or the like, as longas the UE can find the source reference signal from the intermediatereference signal based on the association. The base station canconfigure such association to the UE through RRC layer signaling.

Thus, when the UE receives the TCI state, on the one hand, the UE findsthe QCL hypothesis of typeD from the TCI state, and uses spatialreception parameters for the listed reference signal to implement thereception of downlink reference signals such as DMRS of PDCCH, forcoherent demodulation of the PDCCH or PDSCH; on the other hand, the UEfinds the associated spatial relation information based on theassociation between the TCI state and the spatial relation information,and uses the spatial relation information to implement.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 19A, in a case where the source referencesignal in the spatial relation information is a downlink referencesignal such as SSB or NZP-CSI-RS, the UE can use the spatial receptionparameters for previously receiving this reference signal to determinespatial transmission parameters for transmitting the target referencesignal, so as to implementing the transmission of the target referencesignal.

As shown in FIG. 19B, in a case where the source reference signal in thespatial relation information is an uplink reference signal such as SRS,the UE can use the spatial transmission parameters for previouslytransmitting this reference signal to determine spatial transmissionparameters for transmitting the target reference signal, so as toimplementing the transmission of the target reference signal.

In this way, the TCI state corresponding to the intermediate referencesignal can be used to implement both of the downlink beam indication andthe uplink beam indication without additional signaling to activatespatial relation information for the UE. This saves resources consumedfor signaling transmission.

For SSB or NZP-CSI-RS as the source reference signal in the spatialrelation information and SSB or NZP-CSI-RS as the intermediate referencesignal in the TCI state, in an example, they can be configured to have aQCL relationship, even they can be the same reference signal, that is,identified by the same SSB_Index or NZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID. In this case,from the UE side, the beam used by the UE to receive the sourcereference signal and the beam used to receive the intermediate referencesignal have the same beam direction.

In addition, when SSB or NZP-CSI-RS is referred to as the sourcereference signal in the spatial relation information, in order to ensurethat the spatial reception parameters for the SSB or NZP-CSI-RS can beused for the transmission of the target reference signal, the receivingbeam used by the UE for receiving the source reference signal and thetransmitting beam used for transmitting the target reference signal mayhave the same direction, that is, the downlink wireless channel throughwhich the source reference signal propagates and the uplink wirelesschannel through which the target reference signal propagates aresymmetrical. In the TDD system, it can be considered that the uplinkchannel and the downlink channel sharing the same frequency domainresource are symmetrical. For an FDD system, if the frequency bands ofthe uplink channel and the downlink channel may be close, the channelenvironments experienced by the uplink channel and the downlink channelmay be similar, and they can also be considered to be symmetrical. Inthis case, the large-scale property of the downlink channel carrying thesource reference signal can be inferred from the large-scale property ofthe uplink channel carrying the target reference signal, and in thissense, there is a QCL relationship of typeD between the receivingportion of the source reference signal and the transmitting port of thetarget reference signal.

Similarly, when SRS is referred to as the source reference signal in thespatial relation information, in order to ensure that the spatialtransmission parameters for the SRS can be used for the transmission ofthe target reference signal, the transmitting beam used by the UE fortransmitting the source reference signal and the transmitting beam usedfor the target reference signal may have the same direction. In thissense, there is a QCL relationship of typeD between the transmittingport of the source reference signal and the transmitting port of thetarget reference signal.

Thus, the QCL relationships between various reference signals describedwith reference to FIG. 8 can be extended to FIG. 20 . FIG. 20 differsfrom FIG. 8 in that a QCL relationship between a downlink referencesignal such as SSB or CSI-RS and an uplink reference signal such as SRScan be established. Three SRSs are shown in FIG. 20 , namely, SRS (BM)for beam management, SRS (CB) based on codebook scheduling, and SRS(NCB) based on non-codebook scheduling, but it should be understood thatthe types of SRS may not be limited to these. In addition, the QCLrelationships between SSB, CSI-RS, and various SRSs depicted in FIG. 20is only exemplary and not limiting. For example, SSB may also have a QCLrelationship with SRS (BM) or SRS (NCB).

Based on the extended QCL relationship map in FIG. 20 , an intermediatereference signal suitable for the indirect beam indication of SRS can beeasily selected. Similarly to the first embodiment, a QCL chain betweenthe source reference signal, the intermediate reference signal, and thetarget reference signal can be established, which facilitatessimplifying the beam operation in the uplink and downlink directions.

Some examples of the indirect beam indication according to the secondembodiment are described below. It should be understood that thefollowing examples are only used to illustrate some scenarios in whichthe second embodiment can be applied, rather than to limit the aspectsof the second embodiment.

Example 1

Example 1 of the second embodiment involves but is not limited to thefollowing scenario: after the UE receives PDSCH scheduled by the DCI, itneeds to feed back ACK/NACK for the PDSCH to the base station throughPUCCH. Example 1 of the second embodiment provides a method ofindicating the PDSCH and the PUCCH at the same time.

FIG. 21 is a simplified diagram of Example 1 of the indirect beamindication according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 21 , thetarget reference signal is PUCCH or its DMRS.

The base station establishes an association between the TCI state forthe beam indication of PDSCH and the PUCCH spatial relation informationfor the beam indication of PUCCH, and configures it to the UE throughRRC layer signaling. For example, the base station can send to the UEthe association information between the TCI state ID and the PUCCHspatial relation information ID, and the UE stores such associationlocally.

The base station indicates the TCI state to the UE through DCI. Itshould be noted that for the sake of brevity, another optional QCLhypothesis is not shown in FIG. 21 , but the TCI state may or may notinclude an additional QCL hypothesis.

The UE receives the indication, and finds an identifier SSB_Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of the reference signal from the qcl hypothesis oftypeD (for example, qcl-Type1 in FIG. 21 ). The UE uses the spatialreception parameters for the reference signal identified by theidentifier to configure its antenna array for reception of the PDSCH.

In addition, the UE also finds associated PUCCH spatial relationinformation based on the association between the TCI state and the PUCCHspatial relation information, and uses the PUCCH spatial relationinformation to schedule transmission of PUCCH. In particular, the UE canuse spatial reception parameters for the reference signal SSB_Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID listed in the PUCCH spatial relation informationor spatial transmission parameters for the SRS identified bySRS-ResourceId plus BWP-Id to determine spatial transmission parametersfor transmitting the PUCCH and its DMRS (if the PUCCH has one). The UEconfigures its antenna array using the determined spatial transmissionparameters, so as to transmit ACK/NACK for PDSCH through PUCCH.

Example 2

Example 2 of the second embodiment involves but is not limited to thefollowing scenario: when an aperiodic SRS trigger is received in DCI,the UE transmits the SRS to the base station. Example 2 of the secondembodiment provides a method of simultaneously scheduling SRS throughthe TCI state.

FIG. 22 is a simplified diagram of Example 2 of the indirect beamindication according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 22 , thetarget reference signal is SRS.

The base station establishes an association between the TCI state forthe beam indication of PDSCH and the SRS spatial relation informationfor the beam indication of SRS, and configures it to the UE through RRClayer signaling. For example, the base station can send the associationinformation between the TCI state ID and the SRS spatial relationinformation ID to the UE, and the UE stores this association locally.

The base station indicates the TCI state to the UE through DCI. Itshould be noted that for the sake of brevity, another optional QCLhypothesis is not shown in FIG. 22 , but the TCI state may or may notinclude an additional QCL hypothesis.

The UE receives the indication, and finds an identifier SSB_Index orNZP-CSI-RS-ResourceID of the reference signal from the qcl hypothesis oftypeD (for example, qcl-Type1 in FIG. 22 ). The UE uses the spatialreception parameters for the reference signal identified by theidentifier to configure its antenna array for reception of the PDSCH.

In addition, the UE also finds associated SRS spatial relationinformation based on the association between the TCI state and the SRSspatial relation information, and uses the SRS spatial relationinformation to schedule the transmission of SRS. In particular, the UEcan use spatial reception parameters for the reference signal SSB orNZP-CSI-RS listed in the SRS spatial relation information or spatialtransmission parameters for the SRS identified by SRS-ResourceId plusBWP-Id to determine spatial transmission parameters for transmitting theSRS. The UE configures its antenna array using the determined spatialtransmission parameters for the transmission of an aperiodic SRS.

(Electronic Device and Communication Method According to the SecondEmbodiment)

Next, an electronic device and a communication method that can implementthe second embodiment of the present disclosure are described.

FIG. 23A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 300according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 300 may be aUE or a component of the UE.

As shown in FIG. 23A, the electronic device 300 includes a processingcircuitry 301. The processing circuitry 301 includes at least anassociation configuration receiving unit 302 and an indication receivingunit 303. The processing circuitry 301 may be configured to perform thecommunication method shown in FIG. 23B.

The association configuration receiving unit 302 in the processingcircuitry 301 is configured to receive configuration on an associationbetween a source reference signal and an intermediate reference signalfrom a base station, that is, to perform step S301 in FIG. 23B. Theassociation configuration receiving unit 302 is configured to receiveRRC signaling regarding the association between the source referencesignal and the intermediate reference signal. The association betweenthe source reference signal and the intermediate reference signal mayinclude the association between the spatial relation informationreferring to the source reference signal and the TCI state referring tothe intermediate reference signal. The processing circuitry 301 maystore the received association information in the UE, for example, in amemory 306.

The indication receiving unit 303 is configured to receive an indicationfor the intermediate reference signal from the base station, that is, toperform step S302 in FIG. 23B. The indication receiving unit 303 mayreceive the indication information of the TCI state corresponding to theintermediate reference signal through MAC CE or DCI.

The reference signal sending unit 304 is configured to in response tothe indication for the intermediate reference signal and based on theassociation between the intermediate reference signal and the sourcereference signal, use spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the source reference signal to implementreception of a target reference signal, that is, to perform step S303 inFIG. 23B. Based on the association between the intermediate referencesignal and the source reference signal, the reference signal sendingunit 304 finds the source reference signal from the intermediatereference signal referred to in the TCI state received by the indicationreceiving unit 303, and configures the antenna array by using thespatial reception parameters previously determined when receiving thesource reference signal such as SSB or NZP-CSI-RS or the spatialtransmission parameters previously determined when transmitting thesource reference signal such as SRS, so as to facilitate thetransmission of PUCCH or SRS.

The electronic device 300 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 305 and a memory 306.

The communication unit 305 may be configured to communicate with thebase station under the control of the processing circuitry 301. In anexample, the communication unit 305 may be implemented as a transmitteror transceiver, including communication components such as an antennaarray and/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 305 is drawnwith a dashed line because it may also be located outside the electronicdevice 300. The communication unit 305 may receive configurationinformation on the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal, the beam indication information andthe like from the base station. The communication unit 305 may alsotransmit PUCCH or SRS.

The electronic device 300 may further include the memory 306. The memory306 can store various data and instructions, such as the configurationinformation on the association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal and the beam instruction information,programs and data used for operation of the electronic device 300, andvarious data generated by the processing circuitry 301, data received bythe communication unit 305, and the like.

FIG. 24A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 400according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 400 may be orlocated in a control device such as a base station.

As shown in FIG. 24A, the electronic device 400 includes a processingcircuitry 401. The processing circuitry 401 includes at least anassociation configuration sending unit 402 and an indication sendingunit 403. The processing circuitry 401 may be configured to execute thecommunication method shown in FIG. 24B.

The association configuration sending unit 402 of the processingcircuitry 401 is configured to send configuration on an associationbetween a source reference signal and an intermediate reference signalto the UE, that is, to perform step S401 in FIG. 24B. The associationconfiguration sending unit 402 can create the association between tworeference signals, and configure such association to the UE through RRClayer signaling. The association between the source reference signal andthe intermediate reference signal may include the association betweenspatial relation information referring to the source reference signaland a TCI state referring to the intermediate reference signal.

The indication sending unit 403 is configured to send an indication forthe intermediate reference signal to the UE, that is, to perform stepS402 in FIG. 24B. The indication sending unit 403 may include indicationinformation of the TCI state corresponding to the intermediate referencesignal in MAC CE or DCI.

In response to the indication for the intermediate reference signal, theUE may use spatial reception parameters or spatial transmissionparameters for the source reference signal to implement reception of atarget reference signal based on the association between theintermediate reference signal and the source reference signal.

The electronic device 400 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 405 and a memory 406.

The communication unit 405 may be configured to communicate with the UEunder the control of the processing circuitry 401. In an example, thecommunication unit 405 may be implemented as a transmitter ortransceiver, including communication components such as an antenna arrayand/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 405 is drawn witha dashed line because it can also be located outside the electronicdevice 400. The communication unit 405 may send the configurationinformation on the association between the intermediate reference signaland the source reference signal and the beam indication information forthe intermediate reference signal to the UE.

The electronic device 400 may further include a memory 406. The memory406 can store various data and instructions, such as programs and dataused for operation of the electronic device 400, various data generatedby the processing circuitry 401, various control signaling or servicedata to be sent by the communication unit 405, the associationconfiguration information, beam indication information and the like tobe sent by the communication unit 205. The memory 406 is drawn with adashed line because it can also be located within the processingcircuitry 401 or outside the electronic device 400.

Third Embodiment

As described in detail in the first and second embodiments above, in thebeam indication for PDSCH, first, the base station uses RRC layersignaling to configure M (for example, M=64) TCI states for the UE. EachTCI state corresponds to a different beam. Then the base station uses aMAC CE to activate up to 8 TCI states for the UE. The beam directionscorresponding to these activated TCI states can cover a certain spatialrange where the UE is currently located, and the base station canindicate to the UE the beam closest to the current channel directionthrough DCI.

Consider an issue of mobility within the cell. The UE may have a largemovement in the cell, resulting in the 8 activated TCI states becomingunsuitable for the beam indication. As shown in FIG. 25A, circlesrepresent up to 64 TCI states configured for the UE, where the TCIstates activated before the UE moves are represented by square-filledcircles. After the UE moves, the TCI states that are more suitable forthe beam indication to the UE are represented by circles filled with asolid color. In the existing beam indication mechanism, the base stationneeds to reactivate these TCI states in order to select a TCI state fromthem to indicate the beam closest to the channel direction to the UE. Inaddition, a rotation beam blocking or the like of the UE may also leadto situations that require reactivation.

If the movement, rotation and beam blocking of the UE is large enough,it may even cause the currently configured TCI states to be unusable.FIG. 25B schematically shows such a situation. As shown in FIG. 25B, dueto the movement of the UE, the current TCI states (circles filled with asolid color) suitable for the beam indication are not included in theconfigured 64 TCI states. At this time, in the existing beam indicationmechanism, the base station needs to reconfigure the TCI states toconfigure these more suitable TCI states to the UE.

The reconfiguration and reactivation of the TCI state will consume a lotof signaling resources, resulting in a decrease in efficiency of thebeam indication, which is undesired. Increasing the number of TCI statesconfigured for the UE each time, for example, from at most 64 for eachconfiguration to at most 128 for each configuration, can reduce theprobability of reconfiguration to a certain extent.

In addition to this, the third embodiment of the present disclosureprovides a solution for improving beam indication efficiency byestablishing an association between TCI states.

Specifically, the base station can create an association between eachTCI state and another TCI state, and configure these associations to theUE. Thus, each TCI state can not only represent itself, but also the TCIstate associated with it. Based on these associations, an indirect beamindication can be achieved.

The indirect beam indication according to the third embodiment will bedescribed in detail below with reference to FIGS. 26A and 26B.

FIG. 26A is a schematic diagram illustrating a kind of association ofTCI states according to the third embodiment. In an example, the basestation can divide the M TCI states configured for the UE (M=64 in FIG.26A, but M can also be 128, etc.) TCI states into two groups. TCI statesin the first group is associated with those in the second group one byone. This kind of association can be called “intra-group association”.

FIG. 26A shows that among the 8 currently activated TCI states, TCIstate 1 is associated with TCI state 1′, TCI state 2 is associated withTCI state 2′, TCI state 3 is associated with TCI state 3′, and TCI state4 is associated with TCI state 4′. For brevity, the associations of theremaining four TCI states are not shown in the figure.

It is understandable that since the beam directions corresponding torespective TCI states are generally different, the association of theTCI states in the third embodiment is not a spatial relationship, andthe reference signals in the two associated TCI states for which theassociation is established do not necessarily have a QCL relationship.However, it is preferable to still consider the spatial relationship ofthe beams when establishing the association between the TCI states. Forexample, a distance between the beam directions corresponding to the twoTCI states associated with each other is within a certain range, so thatthe coverage area of the beams corresponding to the two TCI statescovers the movement of the UE as much as possible.

The base station can configure these associations to the UE through RRCsignaling. For example, the base station may configure the associationinformation between the TCI state IDs of the TCI states associated witheach other to the UE. The UE receives and saves the associationinformation.

When the UE is experiencing movement, rotation, beam blocking or thelike, the currently activated 8 TCI states are not suitable for the beamindication for the UE, but TCI state 2′ corresponding to TCI state 2 andTCI state 3 corresponding to TCI state 3′ are suitable for the beamindication for the UE. In this case, the base station may not performreactivation of the TCI states.

The base station can determine which of the beam corresponding to TCIstate 2′ and the beam corresponding to TCI state 3′ is closer to thechannel direction, the corresponding TCI state is selected for the beamindication, for example, the base station selects the beam correspondingto TCI state 3′ as the optimal beam.

Since TCI state 3 is currently activated and TCI state 3′ is notactivated, the base station sends the indication information of TCIstate 3 to the UE through DCI.

In order that the UE knows whether the indication by TCI state 3 is forthe TCI state 3 itself or for the associated TCI state 3′, the basestation may also send association enabling information on whether toactivate the association. The association enabling information can besent to the UE through DCI together with the indication information forthe TCI state 3. The DCI format depicted in FIG. 15B can be used here.As shown in FIG. 15B, the DCI includes a 3-bit identification field ofTCI state and 1-bit association enabling information.

The UE receives the DCI through PDCCH, and finds the identificationfield that identifies the TCI state 3 and the corresponding associationenabling information from the DCI. The association enabling informationis set to indicate enablement of association, and the UE finds the TCIstate 3′ based on the association between the TCI state 3 and the TCIstate 3′, and uses the reference signal referred to in the TCI state 3′to receive the PDSCH.

On the contrary, if the association enabling information is set toindicate disablement of association, the UE uses the reference signalreferred to in TCI state 3 to receive the PDSCH.

According to this example, as long as there is a TCI state suitable forbeam indication in the currently activated TCI states and theirassociated TCI states (16 in total), there is no need to reactivate anew TCI state. This improves the efficiency of beam indication.

FIG. 26B is a schematic diagram illustrating another type of associationof TCI states according to the third embodiment. In an example, the basestation may associate M (M=64 in FIG. 26B, but M may also be 128, etc.)TCI states configured for the UE with other M unconfigured TCI statesone by one. This type of association can be called “inter-groupassociation”.

FIG. 26B shows that among the 8 currently activated TCI states, TCIstate 1 is associated with unconfigured TCI state 1′, TCI state 2 isassociated with unconfigured TCI state 2′, and TCI state 3 is associatedwith unconfigured TCI state 3′, and TCI state 4 is associated withunconfigured TCI state 4′. For brevity, the associations of theremaining four TCI states are not shown in the figure.

Similarly, the associations between TCI states here may not have a QCLrelationship. The base station can configure these associations to theUE through RRC signaling. For example, the base station may configurethe association information between TCI state IDs of the mutuallyassociated TCI states to the UE. The UE receives and saves theassociated information.

When the UE is experiencing movement, rotation, beam blocking or thelike, the currently activated 8 TCI states are not suitable for the beamindication for the UE, but TCI state 2′ corresponding to TCI state 2 andTCI state 1′ corresponding to TCI state 1 are suitable for the beamindication for the UE. In this case, the base station may not performthe reconfiguration of the TCI states.

The base station can determine which of the beam corresponding to TCIstate 1′ and the beam corresponding to TCI state 2′ is closer to thechannel direction, the corresponding TCI state is selected for beamindication, for example, the base station selects the beam correspondingto TCI state 1′ as the optimal beam.

Since TCI state 1 is currently activated and TCI state 1′ is notactivated, the base station sends indication information of TCI state 1to the UE through DCI.

In order that the UE knows whether the indication with TCI state 1 isfor the TCI state 1 itself or for the associated TCI state 1′, the basestation may also send association enabling information on whether toactivate the association. The association enabling information can besent to the UE through DCI together with the indication information forTCI state 1. As shown in FIG. 15B, the DCI includes a 3-bitidentification field of TCI state and 1-bit association enablinginformation.

The UE receives the DCI through PDCCH, and finds the identificationfield that identifies TCI state 1 and the corresponding associationenabling information from the DCI. The association enabling informationis set to indicate enablement of association, and the UE finds TCI state1′ based on the association between TCI state 1 and TCI state 1′, anduses the reference signal referred to in TCI state 1′ to receive thePDSCH.

On the contrary, if the association enabling information is set toindicate disablement of association, the UE uses the reference signalreferred in TCI state 1 to receive the PDSCH.

According to this example, as long as there is a TCI state suitable forbeam indication in the currently activated TCI states and theirassociated TCI states (16 in total), there is no need to reconfigure andreactivate a new TCI state. This improves the efficiency of beamindication.

Alternatively, when the UE moves, rotates, encounters beam blocking orthe like, the base station can determine 8 new TCI states of the mostsuitable beams (denoted as TCI states 1′˜8′) at this time, and createthese one-to-one associations between the 8 TCI states and the 8currently activated TCI states (denoted as TCI states 1˜8). The basestation configures such association information to the UE through RRClayer signaling.

Then, the base station can select a certain TCI state whose beamdirection is closest to the channel direction from these 8 new TCIstates, for example, TCI state 1′.

Without reactivation, the base station indicates the currently activatedTCI state 1 associated with TCI state 1′ to the UE. In addition, thebase station also sends association enabling information to the UE.

After the UE receives the indication information for TCI state 1 and theassociation enabling information, in response to the associationenabling information indicating enablement of association, it can findTCI state 1′ based on the association between TCI state 1 and TCI state1′, and Use the reference signal referred to in TCI state 1′ to receivethe PDSCH.

Although the indirect beam indication according to the third embodimentis described above by taking PDSCH transmission as example, the thirdembodiment of the present disclosure is not limited to the PDSCHtransmission, and may be applied to PDCCH transmission after appropriatemodifications.

(Electronic Device and Communication Method According to the ThirdEmbodiment)

Next, an electronic device and a communication method that can implementthe third embodiment of the present disclosure are described.

FIG. 27A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 500according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 500 may be aUE or a component of the UE.

As shown in FIG. 27A, the electronic device 500 includes a processingcircuitry 501. The processing circuitry 501 includes at least anactivation receiving unit 502 and an indication receiving unit 503. Theprocessing circuitry 501 may be configured to perform the communicationmethod shown in FIG. 27B.

The activation information receiving unit 502 in the processingcircuitry 501 is configured to receive activation information for afirst set of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states from acontrol device such as a base station, that is, to perform step S501 inFIG. 27B. Each TCI state in the first set TCI states is respectivelyassociated with a corresponding one in a second set of TCI states.

The indication receiving unit 505 is configured to receive indicationinformation for a specific TCI state in the first set of TCI states andits associated activation information from the control device, that is,to perform step S502 in FIG. 27B. The indication receiving unit 503 mayreceive the indication information for the specific TCI state throughDCI. The association enabling information may be included in the DCItogether with the indication information.

The determining unit 504 is configured to determine spatial receptionparameters based on the TCI state in the second set of TCI states whichis associated with the specific TCI state in a case where theassociation enabling information indicates enablement of association,that is, to perform step S503 in FIG. 27 . In addition, in a case wherethe association enabling information indicates disablement ofassociation, the determining unit 504 determines spatial receptionparameters based on the specific TCI state.

The electronic device 500 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 505 and a memory 506.

The communication unit 505 may be configured to communicate with thebase station under the control of the processing circuitry 501. In anexample, the communication unit 505 may be implemented as a transmitteror transceiver, including communication components such as an antennaarray and/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 505 is drawnwith a dashed line because it can also be located outside the electronicdevice 500. The communication unit 505 may receive the activationinformation, the indication information, and the association enablinginformation for the TCI state from the base station.

The electronic device 500 may further include a memory 506. The memory506 can store various data and instructions, such as the activationinformation, the indication information, and the association enablinginformation for the TCI state received from the base station, programsand data for operation of the electronic device 500, various datagenerated by the processing circuitry 501, data to be sent by thecommunication unit 505 and the like.

FIG. 28A is a block diagram illustrating an electronic device 600according to the present disclosure. The electronic device 600 may be orlocated in a control device such as a base station.

As shown in FIG. 28A, the electronic device 600 includes a processingcircuitry 601. The processing circuitry 601 includes at least anactivation information sending unit 602 and an indication sending unit603. The processing circuitry 601 may be configured to perform thecommunication method shown in FIG. 28B.

The activation information sending unit 602 of the processing circuitry601 is configured to send activation information for a first set of TCIstates to the UE, that is, to perform step S601 in FIG. 28B. Each TCIstate in the first set of TCI states is respectively associated with acorresponding TCI state in a second set of TCI states.

The indication sending unit 603 is configured to send indicationinformation for a specific TCI state in the first set of TCI states andits associated activation information to the UE, that is, to performstep S602 in FIG. 23B. The indication sending unit 503 may send theindication information for the specific TCI state through DCI. Theassociation enabling information may be included in the DCI togetherwith the indication information.

In a case where the association enabling information indicatesenablement of association, the UE may determine spatial receptionparameters based on the TCI state in the second set of TCI states whichis associated with the specific TCI state. In addition, in a case wherethe association enabling information indicates disablement ofassociation, the UE determines the spatial reception parameters based onthe specific TCI state.

The electronic device 600 may further include, for example, acommunication unit 605 and a memory 606.

The communication unit 605 may be configured to communicate with the UEunder the control of the processing circuitry 601. In an example, thecommunication unit 605 may be implemented as a transmitter ortransceiver, including communication components such as an antenna arrayand/or a radio frequency link. The communication unit 605 is drawn witha dashed line because it can also be located outside the electronicdevice 600. The communication unit 605 may send the configurationinformation on associations between TCI states, the beam indicationinformation, and the association enabling information to the UE.

The electronic device 600 may further include a memory 606. The memory606 can store various data and instructions, such as programs and dataused for operation of the electronic device 600, various data generatedby the processing circuitry 601, various control signaling or servicedata received by the communication unit 605, the beam indicationinformation and the association enabling information to sent by thecommunication unit 605. The memory 606 is drawn with a dashed linebecause it can also be located in the processing circuitry 601 oroutside the electronic device 600.

The various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure havebeen described in detail above, but it should be noted that, in order todescribe the structure, arrangement, type, number, etc. of the antennaarray as shown, ports, reference signals, communication devices,communication methods and the like are not intended to limit the aspectsof the present disclosure to these specific examples.

It should be understood that the various units of the electronic device100, 200, 300, 400, 500 and 600 described in the above embodiments areonly logical modules divided according to the specific functions theyimplement, and are not used to limit specific implementations. In theactual implementation, the foregoing units may be implemented asindividual physical entities, or may also be implemented by a singleentity (for example, a processor (CPU or DSP, etc.), an integratedcircuit, etc.).

[Exemplary Implementations of the Present Disclosure]

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, variousimplementations for practicing concepts of the present disclosure can beconceived, including but not limited to:

1). An electronic device on user device side, comprising: a processingcircuitry configured to: receive, from a control device, configurationon an association between a first reference signal and a secondreference signal; receive, from the control device, an indication forthe first reference signal; and in response to the indication for thefirst reference signal, implement reception of a third reference signalby using spatial reception parameters for the second reference signalbased on the association between the first reference signal and thesecond reference signal.

2). An electronic device on control device side, comprising: aprocessing circuitry configured to: send, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and send, to the user device, an indication forthe first reference signal; wherein in response to the indication forthe first reference signal, the user device implements reception of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal based on the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal.

3). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein implementing reception ofthe third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal comprising determining spatial receptionparameters for the third reference signal by using the spatial receptionparameters for the second reference signal so as to implement thereception of the third reference signal.

4). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein a port of the secondreference signal and a port of the third reference signal have a QuasiCo-Located (QCL) relationship with respect to spatial receptionparameters.

5). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein the association betweenthe first reference signal and the second reference signal includes aQCL relationship between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

6). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein the association betweenthe first reference signal and the second reference signal isimplemented by a QCL relationship between the first reference signal anda fourth reference signal and a QCL relationship between the fourthreference signal and the second reference signal.

7). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein the first referencesignal includes any of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channelblock (SSB) signal and channel state information reference signal(CSI-RS)

8). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein the second referencesignal includes any of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channelblock (SSB) signal and channel state information reference signal(CSI-RS), and the third reference signal includes demodulation referencesignal (DMRS).

9). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein the spatial receptionparameters are beamforming parameters for forming a receiving beam.

10). The electronic device of 1) or 2), wherein receiving the indicationfor the first reference signal includes receiving a transmissionconfiguration indication (TCI) state containing identificationinformation of the first reference signal.

11). An electronic device on user device side, comprising: a processingcircuitry configured to: receive, from a control device, configurationon an association between a first reference signal and a secondreference signal; receive, from the control device, an indication forthe first reference signal; and in response to the indication for thefirst reference signal, implement transmission of a third referencesignal by using spatial reception parameters or spatial transmissionparameters for the second reference signal based on the associationbetween the first reference signal and the second reference signal.

12). An electronic device on control device side, comprising: aprocessing circuitry configured to: send, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and send, to the user device, an indication forthe first reference signal; wherein in response to the indication forthe first reference signal, the user device implements transmission of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.

13). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the second referencesignal is a downlink reference signal, and wherein implementing thetransmission of the third reference signal by using the spatialreception parameters or the spatial transmission parameters for thesecond reference signal includes: determining the spatial transmissionparameters for the third reference signal by using the spatial receptionparameters for the second reference signal, so as to implement thetransmission of the third reference signal.

14). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the second referencesignal is an uplink reference signal, and wherein implementing thetransmission of the third reference signal by using the spatialreception parameters or the spatial transmission parameters for thesecond reference signal includes: determining the spatial transmissionparameters for the third reference signal by using the spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal, so as toimplement the transmission of the third reference signal.

15). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein a downlink wirelesschannel through which the second reference signal propagates issymmetrical to an uplink wireless channel through which the thirdreference signal propagates.

16). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the associationbetween the first reference signal and the second reference signalincludes an association between a transmission configuration indication(TCI) state containing identification information of the first referencesignal and spatial relation information (SpatialRelationInfo) containingidentification information of the second reference signal.

17). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the first referencesignal and the second reference signal are the same downlink referencesignal.

18). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the first referencesignal includes any of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channelblock (SSB) signal and channel state information reference signal(CSI-RS).

19). The electronic device of 13), wherein the second reference signalcomprises any of synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block(SSB) signal and channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS),and the third reference signal includes demodulation reference signal(DMRS) and sounding reference signal (SRS).

20). The electronic device of 14), wherein the second reference signalincludes sounding reference signal (SRS), and the third reference signalincludes any of demodulation reference signal (DMRS) and soundingreference signal (SRS).

21). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the spatial receptionparameters are beamforming parameters for forming a receiving beam.

22). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein the spatialtransmission parameters are beamforming parameters for forming atransmitting beam.

23). The electronic device of 11) or 12), wherein receiving theindication for the first reference signal includes receiving atransmission configuration indication (TCI) state containingidentification information of the first reference signal.

24). An electronic device on user device side, comprising: a processingcircuitry configured to: receive, from a control device, activationinformation for a first set of transmission configuration indication(TCI) states, wherein each of the first set of TCI states isrespectively associated with a corresponding one of a second set of TCIstates; receive, from the control device, indication information for aspecific TCI state in the first set of TCI states and associationenabling information; and in a case where the association enablinginformation indicates enablement of association, determine spatialreception parameters based on an TCI state in the second set of TCIstates associated with the specific TCI state.

25). The electronic device of 24), wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to in the case where the association enablinginformation indicates disablement of association, determine the spatialreception parameters based on the specific TCI state.

26). The electronic device of 24), wherein in a case where at least oneTCI state in the first set of TCI states and the second set of TCIstates is determined to be suitable for beam indication, there is noactivation information for the TCI state from the control device.

27). The electronic device of 24) or 25), wherein the associationenabling information is included in Downlink Control Information (DCI).

28). An electronic device on control device side, comprising: aprocessing circuitry configured to send, to a user device, activationinformation for a first set of transmission configuration indication(TCI) states, wherein each of the first set of TCI states isrespectively associated with a corresponding one of a second set TCIstates; and send, to the user device, indication information for aspecific TCI state in the first set of TCI states and associationenabling information, wherein in a case where the association enablinginformation indicates enablement of association, a TCI state in thesecond set of TCI states associated with the specific TCI state is usedby the user device to determine spatial reception parameters.

29). The electronic device of 28), wherein in a case where theassociation enabling information indicates disablement of association,the specific TCI state is used by the user device to determine thespatial reception parameters.

30). The electronic device of 28), wherein the processing circuitry isfurther configured to: in a case where at least one TCI state in thefirst set of TCI states and the second set of TCI states is determinedto be suitable for beam indication, do not send the activationinformation for the TCI state to the user device.

31). The electronic device of 28) or 29), wherein the associationenabling information is included in Downlink Control Information (DCI).

32). A communication method, comprising: receiving, from a controldevice, configuration on an association between a first reference signaland a second reference signal; receiving, from the control device, anindication for the first reference signal; and in response to theindication for the first reference signal, implementing reception of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal based on the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal.

33). A communication method, comprising: sending, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and sending, to the user device, an indicationfor the first reference signal; wherein in response to the indicationfor the first reference signal, the user device implements reception ofa third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters for thesecond reference signal based on the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal.

34). A communication method, comprising: receiving, from a controldevice, configuration on an association between a first reference signaland a second reference signal; receiving, from the control device, anindication for the first reference signal; and in response to theindication for the first reference signal, implementing transmission ofa third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters orspatial transmission parameters for the second reference signal based onthe association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

35). A communication method, comprising: sending, to a user device,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; and sending, to the user device, an indicationfor the first reference signal; wherein in response to the indicationfor the first reference signal, the user device implements transmissionof a third reference signal by using spatial reception parameters orspatial transmission parameters for the second reference signal based onthe association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal.

36). A communication method, comprising: receiving, from a controldevice, activation information for a first set of transmissionconfiguration indication (TCI) states, wherein each of the first set ofTCI states is respectively associated with a corresponding one of asecond set of TCI states; receiving, from the control device, indicationinformation for a specific TCI state in the first set of TCI states andassociation enabling information; and in a case where the associationenabling information indicates enablement of association, determiningspatial reception parameters based on an TCI state in the second set ofTCI states associated with the specific TCI state.

37). A communication method, comprising: sending, to a user device,activation information for a first set of transmission configurationindication (TCI) states, wherein each of the first set of TCI states isrespectively associated with a corresponding one of a second set TCIstates; and sending, to the user device, indication information for aspecific TCI state in the first set of TCI states and associationenabling information, wherein in a case where the association enablinginformation indicates enablement of association, a TCI state in thesecond set of TCI states associated with the specific TCI state is usedby the user device to determine spatial reception parameters.

38). A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storingexecutable instructions which, when executed, perform the communicationmethod according to any of 32)-37).

[Application Examples of the Present Disclosure]

The technology of the present disclosure can be applied to variousproducts.

For example, the electronic device 200, 400 and 600 according to theembodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented as a variety ofbase stations or included in a variety of base stations, and theelectronic device 100, 300 and 500 according to the embodiments of thepresent disclosure can be implemented as a variety of user devices orincluded in a variety of user devices.

The communication method according to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be implemented by various base stations or user devices;the methods and operations according to the embodiments of the presentdisclosure may be embodied as computer-executable instructions, storedin a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, and can beperformed by various base stations or user devices to implement one ormore of the above-mentioned functions.

The technology according to the embodiments of the present disclosurecan be made into various computer program products, which can be used invarious base stations or user devices to implement one or more of theabove-mentioned functions.

The base stations mentioned in the present disclosure can be implementedas any type of base stations, preferably, such as the macro gNB orng-eNB defined in the 3GPP 5G NR standard. A gNB may be a gNB thatcovers a cell smaller than a macro cell, such as a pico gNB, micro gNB,and home (femto) gNB. Instead, the base station may be implemented asany other types of base stations such as a NodeB, eNodeB and a basetransceiver station (BTS). The base station may include a main bodyconfigured to control wireless communication, and one or more remoteradio heads (RRH), a wirelesss relay, a drone control tower, maincontrol unit in an automated factory or the like disposed in a differentplace from the main body.

The user device may be implemented as a mobile terminal such as asmartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC), a notebook PC, a portablegame terminal, a portable/dongle type mobile router, and a digitalcamera apparatus, or an in-vehicle terminal such as a car navigationdevice. The terminal device may also be implemented as a terminal (thatis also referred to as a machine type communication (MTC) terminal) thatperforms machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, a drone, a sensor oractuator in an automated factory or the like. Furthermore, the terminaldevice may be a wireless communication module (such as an integratedcircuit module including a single die) mounted on each of the aboveterminals.

Examples of the base station and the user device in which the presentdisclosure can be applied will be described briefly below.

It should be understood that the term “base station” in the presentdisclosure has the full breadth of its usual meaning and includes atleast a wireless communication station that is used as part of awireless communication system or radio system for facilitatingcommunication. Examples of base stations may be, for example but notlimited to, the following: maybe one or both of a base transceiverstation (BTS) and a base station controller (BSC) in a GSM system, maybe one or both of a radio network controller (RNC) and Node B in a WCDMAsystem, may be eNBs in LTE and LTE-Advanced systems, or may becorresponding network nodes in future communication systems (such asgNB, eLTE, eNB, etc. that may appear in 5G communication systems). Partof the functions in the base station of the present disclosure can alsobe implemented as an entity with control function for communication inD2D, M2M, and V2V communication scenarios, or as an entity that plays aspectrum coordination role in cognitive radio communication scenarios.In an automated factory, an entity providing a network control functioncan be called a base station.

First Application of Base Station

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing a first example of a schematicconfiguration of a base station to which the technology of the presentdisclosure can be applied. In FIG. 29 , the base station is implementedas gNB 1400. The gNB 1400 includes a plurality of antennas 1410 and abase station device 1420. The base station device 1420 and each antenna1410 may be connected to each other via an RF cable. In animplementation manner, the gNB 1400 (or the base station device 1420)herein may correspond to the above-mentioned electronic devices 200, 400and/or 60.

The antennas 1410 includes multiple antenna elements, such as multipleantenna arrays for large-scale MIMO. The antennas 1410, for example, canbe arranged into the antenna array matrix as shown in FIG. 2A, and areused for the base station device 1420 to transmit and receive wirelesssignals. For example, multiple antennas 1410 may be compatible withmultiple frequency bands used by gNB 1400.

The base station device 1420 includes a controller 1421, a memory 1422,a network interface 1423, and a wireless communication interface 1425.

The controller 1421 may be, for example, a CPU or a DSP, and operatesvarious functions of the base station device 1420 at a higher layer. Forexample, the controller 1421 may include the processing circuitry 201,401, or 601 described above, perform the communication method describedin FIG. 17B, 24B, or 28B, or control various components of theelectronic device 200, 400, or 600. For example, the controller 1421generates data packets based on data in signals processed by thewireless communication interface 1425, and passes the generated packetsvia the network interface 1423. The controller 1421 may bundle data frommultiple baseband processors to generate bundled packets, and pass thegenerated bundled packets. The controller 1421 may have logicalfunctions that perform controls such as radio resource control, radiobearer control, mobility management, admission control, and scheduling.The controls can be performed in conjunction with a nearby gNB or corenetwork node. The memory 1422 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores aprogram executed by the controller 1421 and various types of controldata such as a terminal list, transmission power data, and schedulingdata.

The network interface 1423 is a communication interface for connectingthe base station device 1420 to the core network 1424. The controller1421 may communicate with a core network node or another gNB via thenetwork interface 1423. In this case, the gNB 1400 and the core networknode or other gNBs may be connected to each other through a logicalinterface such as an S1 interface and an X2 interface. The networkinterface 1423 may also be a wired communication interface or a wirelesscommunication interface for a wireless backhaul line. If the networkinterface 1423 is a wireless communication interface, compared with thefrequency band used by the wireless communication interface 1425, thenetwork interface 1423 can use a higher frequency band for wirelesscommunication.

The wireless communication interface 1425 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as 5G NR, and provides a wireless connectionto a terminal located in a cell of the gNB 1400 via an antenna 1410. Thewireless communication interface 1425 may generally include, forexample, a baseband (BB) processor 1426 and an RF circuit 1427. The BBprocessor 1426 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and executevarious types of signal processing in layers such as L1, Medium AccessControl (MAC), Radio Link Control (RLC), and Packet Data ConvergenceProtocol (PDCP). As an alternative of the controller 1421, the BBprocessor 1426 may have a part or all of the above-mentioned logicalfunctions. The BB processor 1426 may be a memory storing a communicationcontrol program, or a module including a processor and related circuitsconfigured to execute the program. Updating the program can change thefunction of the BB processor 1426. The module may be a card or a bladeinserted into a slot of the base station device 1420. Alternatively, themodule may be a chip mounted on a card or a blade. Meanwhile, the RFcircuit 1427 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives a wireless signal via the antenna1410. Although FIG. 16 illustrates an example in which one RF circuit1427 is connected to one antenna 1410, the present disclosure is notlimited to this illustration, but one RF circuit 1427 may be connectedto multiple antennas 1410 at the same time.

As shown in FIG. 29 , the wireless communication interface 1425 mayinclude a plurality of BB processors 1426. For example, the plurality ofBB processors 1426 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands usedby gNB 1400. As shown in FIG. 29 , the wireless communication interface1425 may include a plurality of RF circuits 1427. For example, theplurality of RF circuits 1427 may be compatible with multiple antennaelements. Although FIG. 29 shows an example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 1425 includes a plurality of BB processors 1426and a plurality of RF circuits 1427, the wireless communicationinterface 1425 may also include a single BB processor 1426 or a singleRF circuit 1427.

In the gNB 1400 illustrated in FIG. 29 , one or more of the unitsincluded in the processing circuitry 201 described with reference toFIG. 17A, the processing circuitry 401 described with reference to FIG.24A or the processing circuitry 601 described with reference to FIG. 28Amay be implemented in the radio communication interface 1425.Alternatively, at least a part of these components may be implemented inthe controller 1421. As an example, the gNB 1400 includes a part (forexample, the BB processor 1426) or the entire of the radio communicationinterface 1425 and/or a module including the controller 1421, and theone or more components may be implemented in the module. In this case,the module may store a program (in other words, a program causing theprocessor to execute operations of the one or more components) causingthe processor to function as the one or more components, and execute theprogram. As another example, a program causing the processor to functionas the one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1400, and theradio communication interface 1425 (for example, the BB processor 1426)and/or the controller 1421 may execute the program. As described above,as a device including the one or more components, the gNB 1400, the basestation device 1420 or the module may be provided. In addition, areadable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

Second Application Example of Base Station

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing a second example of a schematicconfiguration of a base station to which the technology of the presentdisclosure can be applied. In FIG. 30 , the base station is shown as gNB1530. The gNB 1530 includes multiple antennas 1540, base stationequipment 1550, and RRH 1560. The RRH 1560 and each antenna 1540 may beconnected to each other via an RF cable. The base station equipment 1550and the RRH 1560 may be connected to each other via a high-speed linesuch as a fiber optic cable. In an implementation manner, the gNB 1530(or the base station device 1550) herein may correspond to the foregoingelectronic devices 200, 400, 600.

The antennas 1540 includes multiple antenna elements, such as multipleantenna arrays for large-scale MIMO. The antennas 1540, for example, canbe arranged into the antenna array matrix as shown in FIG. 2A, and areused for the base station device 1550 to transmit and receive wirelesssignals. For example, multiple antennas 1540 may be compatible withmultiple frequency bands used by gNB 1530.

The base station device 1550 includes a controller 1551, a memory 1552,a network interface 1553, a wireless communication interface 1555, and aconnection interface 1557. The controller 1551, the memory 1552, and thenetwork interface 1553 are the same as the controller 1421, the memory1422, and the network interface 1423 described with reference to FIG. 29.

The wireless communication interface 1555 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as 5G NR, and provides wireless communicationto a terminal located in a sector corresponding to the RRH 1560 via theRRH 1560 and the antenna 1540. The wireless communication interface 1555may typically include, for example, a BB processor 1556. The BBprocessor 1556 is the same as the BB processor 1426 described withreference to FIG. 29 except that the BB processor 1556 is connected tothe RF circuit 1564 of the RRH 1560 via the connection interface 1557.As shown in FIG. 30 , the wireless communication interface 1555 mayinclude a plurality of BB processors 1556. For example, multiple BBprocessors 1556 may be compatible with multiple frequency bands used bygNB 1530. Although FIG. 30 shows an example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 1555 includes a plurality of BB processors 1556,the wireless communication interface 1555 may also include a single BBprocessor 1556.

The connection interface 1557 is an interface for connecting the basestation device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to the RRH1560. The connection interface 1557 may also be a communication modulefor communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line connecting thebase station device 1550 (wireless communication interface 1555) to theRRH 1560.

The RRH 1560 includes a connection interface 1561 and a wirelesscommunication interface 1563.

The connection interface 1561 is an interface for connecting the RRH1560 (wireless communication interface 1563) to the base station device1550. The connection interface 1561 may also be a communication modulefor communication in the above-mentioned high-speed line.

The wireless communication interface 1563 transmits and receiveswireless signals via the antenna 1540. The wireless communicationinterface 1563 may generally include, for example, an RF circuit 1564.The RF circuit 1564 may include, for example, a mixer, a filter, and anamplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signals via the antenna1540. Although FIG. 30 illustrates an example in which one RF circuit1564 is connected to one antenna 1540, the present disclosure is notlimited to this illustration, but one RF circuit 1564 may be connectedto multiple antennas 1540 at the same time.

As shown in FIG. 30 , the wireless communication interface 1563 mayinclude a plurality of RF circuits 1564. For example, the plurality ofRF circuits 1564 may support multiple antenna elements. Although FIG. 30shows an example in which the wireless communication interface 1563includes a plurality of RF circuits 1564, the wireless communicationinterface 1563 may include a single RF circuit 1564.

In the gNB 1500 shown in FIG. 30 , one or more units included in theprocessing circuitry 201 described with reference to FIG. 17A, theprocessing circuitry 401 described with reference to FIG. 24A, or theprocessing circuitry 601 described with reference to FIG. 28A may beimplemented in the wireless communication interface 1525. Alternatively,at least a part of these components may be implemented in the controller1521. For example, the gNB 1500 includes a part (for example, the BBprocessor 1526) or the whole of the wireless communication interface1525, and/or a module including the controller 1521, and one or morecomponents may be implemented in the module. In this case, the modulemay store a program for allowing the processor to function as one ormore components (in other words, a program for allowing the processor toperform operations of one or more components), and may execute theprogram. As another example, a program for allowing the processor tofunction as one or more components may be installed in the gNB 1500, andthe wireless communication interface 1525 (for example, the BB processor1526) and/or the controller 1521 may execute the program. As describedabove, as a device including one or more components, the gNB 1500, thebase station device 1520, or a module may be provided, and a program forallowing the processor to function as one or more components may beprovided. In addition, a readable medium in which the program isrecorded may be provided.

First Application Example of User Device

FIG. 31 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematicconfiguration of a smartphone 1600 to which the technology of thepresent disclosure can be applied. In an example, the smart phone 1600may be implemented as the electronic device 100 described with referenceto FIG. 16A, the electronic device 300 described with reference to FIG.23A, or the electronic device 500 described with reference to FIG. 27A.

The smartphone 1600 includes a processor 1601, a memory 1602, a storagedevice 1603, an external connection interface 1604, a camera device1606, a sensor 1607, a microphone 1608, an input device 1609, a displaydevice 1610, a speaker 1611, a wireless communication interface 1612,one or more antenna switches 1615, one or more antennas 1616, a bus1617, a battery 1618, and an auxiliary controller 1619.

The processor 1601 may be, for example, a CPU or a system on chip (SoC),and controls functions of an application layer and another layer of thesmartphone 1600. The processor 1601 may include or serve as theprocessing circuitry 101 described with reference to 16A, the processingcircuitry 301 described with reference to 12A, and the processingcircuitry 501 described with reference to 27A. The memory 1602 includesa RAM and a ROM, and stores data and programs executed by the processor1601. The storage device 1603 may include a storage medium such as asemiconductor memory and a hard disk. The external connection interface1604 is an interface for connecting external devices such as a memorycard and a universal serial bus (USB) device to the smartphone 1600.

The camera device 1606 includes an image sensor such as a charge-coupleddevice (CCD) and a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS), andgenerates a captured image. The sensor 1607 may include a set of sensorssuch as a measurement sensor, a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor,and an acceleration sensor. The microphone 1608 converts a sound inputto the smartphone 1600 into an audio signal. The input device 1609includes, for example, a touch sensor, a keypad, a keyboard, a button,or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screen of the displaydevice 1610, and receives an operation or information input from a user.The display device 1610 includes a screen such as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD) and an organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, anddisplays an output image of the smartphone 1600. The speaker 1611converts an audio signal output from the smartphone 1600 into a sound.

The wireless communication interface 1612 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as 4G LTE, 5G NR or the like, and performswireless communication. The wireless communication interface 1612 maygenerally include, for example, a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit1614. The BB processor 1613 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performvarious types of signal processing for wireless communication.Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1614 may include, for example, a mixer, afilter, and an amplifier, and transmits and receives wireless signalsvia the antenna 1616. The wireless communication interface 1612 may be achip module on which a BB processor 1613 and an RF circuit 1614 areintegrated. As shown in FIG. 31 , the wireless communication interface1612 may include multiple BB processors 1613 and multiple RF circuits1614. Although FIG. 31 illustrates an example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 1612 includes a plurality of BB processors 1613and a plurality of RF circuits 1614, the wireless communicationinterface 1612 may also include a single BB processor 1613 or a singleRF circuit 1614.

In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, thewireless communication interface 1612 may support other types ofwireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wirelesscommunication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wirelesslocal area network (LAN) scheme. In this case, the wirelesscommunication interface 1612 may include a BB processor 1613 and an RFcircuit 1614 for each wireless communication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1615 switches a connection destination ofthe antenna 1616 between a plurality of circuits included in thewireless communication interface 1612 (for example, circuits fordifferent wireless communication schemes).

The antennas 1616 includes multiple antenna elements, such as multipleantenna arrays for large-scale MIMO. The antennas 1616, for example, canbe arranged into the antenna array matrix as shown in FIG. 2A, and areused for the wireless communication interface 1612 to transmit andreceive wireless signals. The smart phone 1600 can includes one or moreantenna panels (not shown).

In addition, the smartphone 1600 may include an antenna 1616 for eachwireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch 1615 maybe omitted from the configuration of the smartphone 1600.

The bus 1617 connects the processor 1601, the memory 1602, the storagedevice 1603, the external connection interface 1604, the camera device1606, the sensor 1607, the microphone 1608, the input device 1609, thedisplay device 1610, the speaker 1611, the wireless communicationinterface 1612, and the auxiliary controller 1619 to each other. Thebattery 1618 supplies power to each block of the smartphone 1600 shownin FIG. 31 via a feeder, and the feeder is partially shown as a dottedline in the figure. The auxiliary controller 1619 operates the minimumnecessary functions of the smartphone 1600 in the sleep mode, forexample.

In the smart phone 1600 shown in FIG. 31 , one or more componentsincluded in the processing circuitry 101 described with reference toFIG. 16A, the processing circuitry 301 described with reference to FIG.23A, or the processing circuitry 501 described with reference to FIG.27A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1612.Alternatively, at least a part of these components may be implemented inthe processor 1601 or the auxiliary controller 1619. As an example, thesmart phone 1600 includes a part (for example, the BB processor 1613) orthe whole of the wireless communication interface 1612, and/or a moduleincluding the processor 1601 and/or the auxiliary controller 1619, andone or more components may be Implemented in this module. In this case,the module may store a program that allows processing to function as oneor more components (in other words, a program for allowing the processorto perform operations of one or more components), and may execute theprogram. As another example, a program for allowing the processor tofunction as one or more components may be installed in the smart phone1600, and the wireless communication interface 1612 (for example, the BBprocessor 1613), the processor 1601, and/or the auxiliary The controller1619 can execute this program. As described above, as a device includingone or more components, a smart phone 1600 or a module may be provided,and a program for allowing a processor to function as one or morecomponents may be provided. In addition, a readable medium in which theprogram is recorded may be provided.

Second Application Example of User Device

FIG. 32 is a block diagram showing an example of a schematicconfiguration of a car navigation device 1720 to which the technology ofthe present disclosure can be applied. The car navigation device 1720may be implemented as the electronic device 100 described with referenceto FIG. 16A, the electronic device 300 described with reference to FIG.23A, or the electronic device 500 described with reference to FIG. 27A.The car navigation device 1720 includes a processor 1721, a memory 1722,a global positioning system (GPS) module 1724, a sensor 1725, a datainterface 1726, a content player 1727, a storage medium interface 1728,an input device 1729, a display device 1730, a speaker 1731, and awireless communication interface 1733, one or more antenna switches1736, one or more antennas 1737, and a battery 1738.

The processor 1721 may be, for example, a CPU or a SoC, and controlsnavigation functions and other functions of the car navigation device1720. The memory 1722 includes a RAM and a ROM, and stores data andprograms executed by the processor 1721.

The GPS module 1724 uses a GPS signal received from a GPS satellite tomeasure the position (such as latitude, longitude, and altitude) of thecar navigation device 1720. The sensor 1725 may include a set of sensorssuch as a gyroscope sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and an air pressuresensor. The data interface 1726 is connected to, for example, anin-vehicle network 1741 via a terminal not shown, and acquires data(such as vehicle speed data) generated by the vehicle.

The content player 1727 reproduces content stored in a storage mediumsuch as a CD and a DVD, which is inserted into the storage mediuminterface 1728. The input device 1729 includes, for example, a touchsensor, a button, or a switch configured to detect a touch on the screenof the display device 1730, and receives an operation or informationinput from a user. The display device 1730 includes a screen such as anLCD or OLED display, and displays an image of a navigation function orreproduced content. The speaker 1731 outputs the sound of the navigationfunction or the reproduced content.

The wireless communication interface 1733 supports any cellularcommunication scheme such as 4G LTE or 5G NR, and performs wirelesscommunication. The wireless communication interface 1733 may generallyinclude, for example, a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735. The BBprocessor 1734 may perform, for example, encoding/decoding,modulation/demodulation, and multiplexing/demultiplexing, and performvarious types of signal processing for wireless communication.Meanwhile, the RF circuit 1735 may include, for example, a mixer, afilter, and an amplifier, and transmit and receive wireless signals viathe antenna 1737. The wireless communication interface 1733 may also bea chip module on which a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735 areintegrated. As shown in FIG. 32 , the wireless communication interface1733 may include a plurality of BB processors 1734 and a plurality of RFcircuits 1735. Although FIG. 32 shows an example in which the wirelesscommunication interface 1733 includes a plurality of BB processors 1734and a plurality of RF circuits 1735, the wireless communicationinterface 1733 may also include a single BB processor 1734 or a singleRF circuit 1735.

In addition, in addition to the cellular communication scheme, thewireless communication interface 1733 may support other types ofwireless communication scheme, such as a short-range wirelesscommunication scheme, a near field communication scheme, and a wirelessLAN scheme. In this case, the wireless communication interface 1733 mayinclude a BB processor 1734 and an RF circuit 1735 for each wirelesscommunication scheme.

Each of the antenna switches 1736 switches the connection destination ofthe antenna 1737 between a plurality of circuits included in thewireless communication interface 1733, such as circuits for differentwireless communication schemes.

The antennas 1737 includes multiple antenna elements, such as multipleantenna arrays for large-scale MIMO. The antennas 1737, for example, canbe arranged into the antenna array matrix as shown in FIG. 2A, and areused for the wireless communication interface 1733 to transmit andreceive wireless signals.

In addition, the car navigation device 1720 may include an antenna 1737for each wireless communication scheme. In this case, the antenna switch1736 may be omitted from the configuration of the car navigation device1720.

The battery 1738 supplies power to each block of the car navigationdevice 1720 shown in FIG. 32 via a feeder, and the feeder is partiallyshown as a dotted line in the figure. The battery 1738 accumulates powerprovided from the vehicle.

In the car navigation device 1720 shown in FIG. 32 , one or morecomponents included in the processing circuitry 101 described withreference to FIG. 16A, the processing circuitry 301 described withreference to FIG. 23A, or the processing circuitry 501 described withreference to FIG. 27A can be implemented in the wireless communicationinterface 1733. Alternatively, at least a part of these components maybe implemented in the processor 1721. As an example, the car navigationdevice 1720 includes a part (for example, the BB processor 1734) or thewhole of the wireless communication interface 1733, and/or a moduleincluding the processor 1721, and one or more components may beimplemented in the module. In this case, the module may store a programthat allows processing to function as one or more components (in otherwords, a program for allowing the processor to perform operations of oneor more components), and may execute the program. As another example, aprogram for allowing the processor to function as one or more componentsmay be installed in the car navigation device 1720, and the wirelesscommunication interface 1733 (for example, the BB processor 1734) and/orthe processor 1721 may Execute the procedure. As described above, as adevice including one or more components, a car navigation device 1720 ora module may be provided, and a program for allowing the processor tofunction as one or more components may be provided. In addition, areadable medium in which the program is recorded may be provided.

In addition, in the car navigation device 1720 shown in FIG. 32 , forexample, the communication units 105, 305, and 505 of FIGS. 16A, 23A,and 27A may be implemented in the wireless communication interface 1933(for example, the RF circuit 1935).

The technology of the present disclosure may also be implemented as anin-vehicle system (or vehicle) 1740 including one or more of a carnavigation device 1720, an in-vehicle network 1741, and a vehicle module1742. The vehicle module 1742 generates vehicle data such as vehiclespeed, engine speed, and failure information, and outputs the generateddata to the in-vehicle network 1741.

Although the illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure havebeen described with reference to the accompanying drawings, the presentdisclosure is certainly not limited to the above examples. Those skilledin the art may achieve various adaptions and modifications within thescope of the appended claims, and it will be appreciated that theseadaptions and modifications certainly fall into the scope of thetechnology of the present disclosure.

For example, in the above embodiments, the multiple functions includedin one module may be implemented by separate means. Alternatively, inthe above embodiments, the multiple functions included in multiplemodules may be implemented by separate means, respectively. Inadditions, one of the above functions may be implemented by multiplemodules. Needless to say, such configurations are included in the scopeof the technology of the present disclosure.

In this specification, the steps described in the flowcharts include notonly the processes performed sequentially in chronological order, butalso the processes performed in parallel or separately but notnecessarily performed in chronological order. Furthermore, even in thesteps performed in chronological order, needless to say, the order maybe changed appropriately.

Although the present disclosure and its advantages have been describedin detail, it will be appreciated that various changes, replacements andtransformations may be made without departing from the spirit and scopeof the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Inaddition, the terms “include”, “comprise” or any other variants of theembodiments of the present disclosure are intended to be non-exclusiveinclusion, such that the process, method, article or device including aseries of elements includes not only these elements, but also those thatare not listed specifically, or those that are inherent to the process,method, article or device. In case of further limitations, the elementdefined by the sentence “include one” does not exclude the presence ofadditional same elements in the process, method, article or deviceincluding this element.

What is claimed is:
 1. An electronic device on user device side,comprising: a processing circuitry configured to: receive, from acontrol device in radio resource control (RRC) layer signaling,configuration on an association between a first reference signal and asecond reference signal; receive, from the control device in a mediumaccess control (MAC) control element (CE) activation command, atransmission configuration indication (TCI) state indication for thefirst reference signal; and in response to the MAC CE activation commandfor the first reference signal, implement reception of a third referencesignal by using spatial reception parameters for the second referencesignal based on the association between the first reference signal andthe second reference signal, or in response to the MAC CE activationcommand for the first reference signal, implement transmission of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.
 2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein implementingreception of the third reference signal by using spatial receptionparameters for the second reference signal comprising determiningspatial reception parameters for the third reference signal by using thespatial reception parameters for the second reference signal so as toimplement the reception of the third reference signal.
 3. The electronicdevice of claim 1, wherein a port of the second reference signal and aport of the third reference signal have a Quasi Co-Located (QCL)relationship with respect to spatial reception parameters.
 4. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the association between the firstreference signal and the second reference signal includes a QCLrelationship between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.
 5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the associationbetween the first reference signal and the second reference signal isimplemented by a QCL relationship between the first reference signal anda fourth reference signal and a QCL relationship between the fourthreference signal and the second reference signal.
 6. The electronicdevice of claim 1, wherein the first reference signal includes any ofsynchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) signal andchannel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).
 7. The electronicdevice of claim 1, wherein the second reference signal includes any ofsynchronization signal/physical broadcast channel block (SSB) signal andchannel state information reference signal (CSI-RS), and the thirdreference signal includes any of demodulation reference signal (DMRS)and sounding reference signal (SRS).
 8. The electronic device of claim1, wherein the second reference signal is a downlink reference signal,and wherein implementing the transmission of the third reference signalby using the spatial reception parameters or the spatial transmissionparameters for the second reference signal includes: determining thespatial transmission parameters for the third reference signal by usingthe spatial reception parameters for the second reference signal, so asto implement the transmission of the third reference signal.
 9. Theelectronic device of claim 1, wherein the second reference signal is anuplink reference signal, and wherein implementing the transmission ofthe third reference signal by using the spatial reception parameters orthe spatial transmission parameters for the second reference signalincludes: determining the spatial transmission parameters for the thirdreference signal by using the spatial transmission parameters for thesecond reference signal, so as to implement the transmission of thethird reference signal.
 10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein adownlink wireless channel through which the second reference signalpropagates is symmetrical to an uplink wireless channel through whichthe third reference signal propagates.
 11. The electronic device ofclaim 1, wherein the TCI state contains identification information ofthe first reference signal and spatial relation information(SpatialRelationlnfo) containing identification information of thesecond reference signal.
 12. The electronic device of claim 1, whereinthe first reference signal and the second reference signal are the samedownlink reference signal.
 13. The electronic device of claim 9, whereinthe second reference signal includes sounding reference signal (SRS),and the third reference signal includes any of demodulation referencesignal (DMRS) and sounding reference signal (SRS).
 14. An electronicdevice on control device side, comprising: a processing circuitryconfigured to: send, to a user device in radio resource control (RRC)layer signaling, configuration on an association between a firstreference signal and a second reference signal; and send, to the userdevice in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE) activationcommand, a transmission configuration indication (TCI) state indicationfor the first reference signal; wherein in response to the MAC CEactivation command for the first reference signal, the user deviceimplements reception of a third reference signal by using spatialreception parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal, or wherein in response to the MAC CE activation command for thefirst reference signal, the user device implements transmission of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.
 15. A method performed by an electronic device on user deviceside, the method comprising: receiving, from a control device in radioresource control (RRC) layer signaling, configuration on an associationbetween a first reference signal and a second reference signal;receiving, from the control device in a medium access control (MAC)control element (CE) activation command, a transmission configurationindication (TCI) state indication for the first reference signal; and inresponse to the MAC CE activation command for the first referencesignal, implementing reception of a third reference signal by usingspatial reception parameters for the second reference signal based onthe association between the first reference signal and the secondreference signal, or in response to the MAC CE activation command forthe first reference signal, implementing transmission of a thirdreference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.
 16. A method performed by an electronic device on control deviceside, the method comprising: sending, to a user device in radio resourcecontrol (RRC) layer signaling, configuration on an association between afirst reference signal and a second reference signal; and sending, tothe user device in a medium access control (MAC) control element (CE)activation command, a transmission configuration indication (TCI) stateindication for the first reference signal; wherein in response to theMAC CE activation command for the first reference signal, the userdevice implements reception of a third reference signal by using spatialreception parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal, or wherein in response to the MAC CE activation command for thefirst reference signal, the user device implements transmission of athird reference signal by using spatial reception parameters or spatialtransmission parameters for the second reference signal based on theassociation between the first reference signal and the second referencesignal.